Misplaced Life
by believer76
Summary: Reid and Rossi discover that they are father and son and that Reid was kidnapped as a baby and William Reid own son was dying of a bad heart. Will get what he deserves or will he get away with his crime?
1. Chapter 1

Misplaced Life

Part 1

"Ready?" Dave asked his son in a calm tone of voice, but with an edge to it that told anyone who knew him that underneath the calm he was furious. In this case, he had every right to be. It had been discovered through sheer coincidence that Spencer Reid was Dave's blood son, one he had believed dead for nearly 30 years.

Spencer nodded looking resolute. The two men opened the door to the lawyer's office building and entered with a warrant in their possession.

The whole team rode up to the 10th floor in silence and once there Dave boldly strolled to where the reception desk was.

"We need to see William Reid," Dave stated, as he showed the secretary his badge.

"Do you have an appointment?" the secretary asked.

"This is all the appointment I need," Dave said trying to be polite, as he placed the warrant on the counter and then tapping his badge.

The secretary studied the warrant and nodded.

She had a feeling that William Reid would never be coming back to work and she wondered briefly what he had done to bring the attention of the FBI. It must be a serious offense if the FBI was involved.

"His office is to the left, third door right side of the hall," the secretary said.

"Thank you," Dave said, immediately heading in that direction, with Spencer following closely behind.

The whole team had agreed that this was Dave and Spencer's operation and they were just along in case of trouble.

You might ask how Spencer could possibly be David Rossi's son and the answer would be that, Spencer had been kidnapped as a baby out of the hospital. It had been believed until now that David Rossi's second son Peter Daniel Rossi had died after he was born of a bad heart. It turned out however, that William Reid had switched the babies, while there were no nurses about as he knew that it was unlikely his own son would survive more than a few days. Back when Spencer had been born in the very early 80s, such things as kidnappings out of a hospital had not been common and so the neonatal unit was not watched very closely. Nowadays, things were different, neonatal units were, much more closely monitored and they had been back then.

Dave found the entrance to William Reid's office easily and knocked.

When a male voice said come in Dave opened the door and strode in Spencer behind him while the rest of the team waited in the front of the reception desk.

William Reid's looked up at Dave's entrance and the look on the other man's face was terrifying to behold.

"Can I help you?"

"Yes William Reid, you are under arrest for kidnapping and other charges will be pending," Dave announced, as he pushed the one in front of the senior Reid.

"This is ridiculous!" William sputtered. "I'm a well known attorney these charges will not hold."

"You really think so, dad?" Came the sarcastic voice of Spencer. "You're not my father though, are you? Not my real father. You kidnapped me out of the hospital, switched me with your own son, because your own son was going to die of a bad heart, so you switched babies. My real father and I had a blood test done when he noticed several similarities between us and also his late wife. The blood test of course proves without a doubt that I am this other man's son."

William Reid stared at his son and realized that he was indeed in deep trouble. He had never imagined that his crime would be discovered and he had quit worrying about it after a year or so. It had never occurred to him that the real father might run into his supposedly dead son and would notice enough similarities to be very suspicious.

"And there's no statute of limitations on kidnapping," Dave added. "You see he's my son and you caused Caroline and me a great deal of pain thinking that he had died and my wife has no way of knowing that he's actually alive because she died a couple of years ago."

Dave didn't bother to mention that it was the supposed death of Peter that had caused his marriage to break up, although all the time he'd spent at work was also was a major factor.

"Stand up!" Dave ordered. "You're finally going to get what you deserve!"

"I hope you go to prison for the rest of your life," Spencer said his tone totally emotionless, but then he was a master at concealing what he was really feeling. "You take me from my real family and then you don't give me the attention you would a pet. I'll never know my real mother now and all because you thought it was a good idea to kidnap another man's son."

William sputtered, but Dave just pulled his arms behind his back and put the handcuffs over his wrists.

"What's going on here?" demanded a voice.

"William Reid is under arrest," Spencer said calmly turning to face the other man. "It has been discovered that he kidnapped the son of another man, because his own was going to die of a bad heart. I was that baby."

The other man who was also a lawyer stared at him.

"You're welcome to represent him or not," Dave added, as he led William Reid out the door after passing over the warrant, which the lawyer studied intently.

Dave and Spencer headed back to the reception area with William Reid in front of them, so that they could join the other members of the team.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~

Flashback

Dave stared at the birthmark that was on Reid's left hip in flabbergasted shock. He and the younger man were sharing a room because Morgan had taken a couple of days off to visit his family up in Chicago

"Rossi? What's the matter?" Spencer asked noticing the older agent staring at his hip.

Rossi shook himself and tried to explain.

"Your birthmark, it's just like the one my son had after he was born. He supposedly died within 48 hours of being born, bad heart."

Spencer stared at Rossi and then down at the birthmark on his left hip. "You know I've never been able to find any information on a birthmark like mine, so as far as I know it is unique."

Rossi could immediately tell where Spencer was going with this and asked, "You don't think that somehow the babies got switched? That one of the nurses put my son into the Reid crib in the nursery?"

"While that's possible, I wouldn't put it past my father to switch babies. The doctors would have told him that his own son wouldn't survive more than a couple of days, as medical technology wasn't as advanced back nearly 30 years ago, as it is now."

Dave stared at him his shock clearly evident.

"There's only one way to know for sure," Dave finally offered.

"A blood test," Spencer said following Dave's train of thought instantly. "We could be totally wrong you know."

"Yes, we could be, but somehow I don't think we are," Dave said. "I've noticed other similarities between you and my late wife Caroline and also between the two of us, but I dismissed them as coincidence, because I thought that our second son, who we named Peter Daniel was dead. That birthmark clinches it for me and as you said you believe it is unique."

"Well, yes, but..." Spencer said staring at the older man, his expression unreadable.

"You are the same age my son would be if he had lived," Dave said.

Spencer stared at the senior agent, his mind whirling. "If you are my father, I'm going to strangle William Reid. If our scenario is correct and he switched the Reid baby with your own he didn't do it because he wanted a child, no, he did it to have a son to carry on the family name. He likely knew that my mother would never be able to have another, because not only was the birth hard on her, she also had schizophrenia and she would have had to go off her medication in order to make sure the child didn't develop any problems."

"I already knew that your childhood wasn't easy," Rossi said, "just from my own observations and I promise you that you would have grown up differently if you had been raised with your mother, brother and I."

Spencer stared at Rossi his expression undecipherable.

"We'll have to wait until this case is finished before we go for blood tests and I'd prefer not to mention it to anyone until we're sure, just in case we're wrong," Spencer said.

Dave nodded at this, as he agreed 100 percent with Reid's statement, except the last part.

"I think that's best," Dave agreed. "I don't believe we're wrong though, which was the only part of your statement I disagree with. I know in my gut that you are my son, the one I had believed dead for 28 years. William Reid is going to regret ever being born I guarantee it, as he caused Caroline and I unbelievable pain, because we thought our son had died. James should have grown up with a brother and instead he believes he's an early child, as we never told him about Peter. He was only 2 when you were born, so doesn't even remember that his mother was pregnant. Having a brother is going to come as a shock to him. I know my oldest son and he will be furious at what the Senior Reid did, just as I am."

"I have a brother," Spencer whispered, his voice filled with wonder, beginning to believe.

"You do, James David Rossi and he will be thrilled to find out he has a sibling. Unfortunately, you won't be able to meet Caroline, as she died a couple of years ago," Dave said really wanting to embrace his son, but knowing it was going to take time to build that type of relationship.

"I knew my father was something of a bastard, but that was in general, as I had no idea he had committed such a heinous crime," Spencer said.

"You don't seem to doubt that your father would do something like you suggested a few minutes ago," Dave said.

"I don't, because I know what kind of man he is," Spencer explained. "He's the kind of man that would abandon his family just because his wife was ill and his son wasn't turning out like he wanted. It's also possible he started to feel guilty for what he had done, kidnapping another man's son, so dealt with the situation by leaving a ten year old boy to look after his ill mother. He at least provided some money for us so that we could buy food, medication for mom and other basic supplies, but that was all he was willing to do. If he was willing to abandon his son and ill wife then I have no doubt that he's capable of much more heinous action, such as kidnapping, though I don't believe he's capable of murder unless his life is threatened."

"So you don't think your mother was involved in your father's kidnapping of you?" Dave asked.

"No," Spencer said firmly shaking his head. "Mom never would have agreed to allow her husband to do something like that and probably would've yelled at him for even suggesting doing something so criminal. I'm positive she doesn't know anything about what William Reid did and would be furious if she happened to learn of it. Now, that she's taking her medication regularly, well, I wouldn't be surprised if she goes and at least slaps him silly. To let her believe that I am her son when her own died as a baby for nearly three decades ago would be something that she would likely never forgive him for, even if he was genuinely sorry, which I don't see ever happening. Not only did William Reid hurt you and me by what he did he also hurt her, even if she never knows it. She would feel not only her own pain at the loss of her child, but the pain you and your wife must've gone through, when you believed that I had died."

"Alright then, it's only a father that I'm going to go after," Dave said, accepting the young man's word, the man he was absolutely positive was his long lost son. "I'm sure that Garcia can find evidence as luckily, they had started to use computers to keep records, even if those computers were much more primitive back nearly 30 years ago. You know this is nearly the perfect type crime, because if someone didn't know precisely where to look or know that a crime had taken place they would never find evidence, except by sheerest coincidence."

"If you're going after him then I would like to be a part of it," Spencer requested firmly and Dave nodded.

"You deserve to be, because what he did hurt not only me and Caroline, but you as well. If he had really treated you like a son it would be different, but from what I know he didn't," Dave agreed.

"No, he didn't not even from my earliest memories," Spencer agreed. "Maybe he felt guilty from the beginning for what he did or maybe he's just a lousy human being, but either way if I really am your son then he's going down."

On that particular subject both father and son were in complete agreement. Sure neither men knew if they really were related, but somehow neither had any doubt.

End flashback

~~~Criminal Minds~~~

"This is ridiculous!" William Reid bellowed, even though he knew that the FBI had him dead to rights including his own son that he had kidnapped as a baby. The Senior Reid sat in an interrogation room having no doubt that he was being observed through the two way mirror.

The Senior Reid tried his best to think of some way out of this situation but knew that that wasn't possible. He doubted very much that this David Rossi would accept any type bribe from him, especially since it was his son that he had switched with his own. At the time it had seemed like the perfect solution and he didn't even really feel guilty for what he had done. It had been a nearly the perfect crime that no one was likely to ever find out about. He didn't even think about how he had left family grieving for the loss of a child. Nurseries in hospitals hadn't been watched so closely back in those days, not like now, where stealing babies from hospitals to sell on the black market adoption ring was much more common and therefore, more risky. It had been so easy to switch his son with the one that he thought looked the most like him and the baby had even had brown fluff for hair that was only a few shades off his own. That he had happened to kidnap the one that belonged to an officer of the law, an FBI agent no less had never occurred to him at the time. No, he would receive no mercy from this David Rossi and probably not from Spencer either considering how he had treated him as a kid. He doubted very much that Spencer would be in his corner considering he treated him worse then some mud found on the bottom of his shoe. Why did fate seem to hate him? The odds must be very long that Spencer's real father ran into his son and though the two men looked nothing alike that didn't mean that they weren't father and son. Oh, there was some superficial similarities, but nothing that thousands of other people didn't have. All he could figure was the fact that Spencer must look more like his real mother then his father

Rossi had mentioned something about a blood test, which he knew would show that he and Spencer were indeed related and that meant he was screwed, because he could see no mercy coming from either father or son, the other agents or the police for that matter.

It looked like he was going to land in prison unless he could bribe the judge, though he had a feeling that both Agent Rossi and his son would make sure that didn't happen by attending the trial, as they wouldn't want him to get off scot-free or with just a slap on the wrist.

William knew that wasn't going to happen as the charges were much too serious, so he suspected he would be spending the rest of his life in prison and even if he didn't his reputation was now in tatters, so there was no way that his firm would keep him on, even if he was declared innocent. A lawyer needed an impeccable reputation unless you were one of those sleazy ones that got criminals off scot-free. His reputation had managed to survive his divorce from Diana as back then standing by your family was very important in his profession.

This was something he knew he couldn't survive though, even if he somehow got off, which was not very likely there's no way he could ever return to his firm as a partner.

They were waiting on his lawyer to arrive, before they questioned him, but William was smart enough to be aware that he would still be changing his address to prison, as kidnapping was a very serious charge. It wasn't just a misdemeanor, as it was a very serious crime, which was why the FBI was involved.

Finally what seemed like hours later the door opened.

His lawyer strolled in sat down at one side of the square table and the two men begin to talk softly.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~

"Think that he will admit his guilt?" Aaron asked Rossi and Reid, as the three men stood in front of the three-way mirror as the two men inside the interrogation room talked.

"He should considering the evidence we have against him as his guilt isn't in any doubt, but whether he will or not..." Dave said.

"I just realized that my father shares many traits with those psychopaths the BAU catches, the ones that have no emotion whatsoever, but can fake them well enough to fool most people. Looking back he was always like that, though as a child of course, I didn't know that it wasn't normal, no matter how intelligent I happened to be. I really don't believe that William Reid has it in him to murder anyone at least not directly, but that doesn't mean he doesn't share many personality traits with past serial killers. He's cold, doesn't care about anybody but himself, not even the son he kidnapped from another family or even his wife. He likely married to keep up appearances, as being a family man was important back in the days I was born, particularly for an attorney. I won't say he didn't feel some sort a shallow affection for the woman I believed was my mother, but really loving her is likely beyond him," Spencer said. "I mean he abandoned her after all."

"I agree with that," Aaron said nodding. "He might actually feel emotions for others, but if he does they're probably of the shallow variety that will fade over time."

"I think you should be the one to question him," Dave told Hotch. "I'm not entirely sure I could control my temper if I was to enter that room. I had enough trouble stopping myself from punching him in the nose when I was arresting him. He made Caroline and I believe that our son had died and while you know I'm usually very calm and steady this is a different situation altogether."

"Yes, I would be furious to the same thing had happened to Jack," Aaron agreed, truly understanding his old friend's feelings. To find out that Spencer was his son, a son Dave had thought dead for nearly 30 years, well, that would certainly get him angry enough to want to punch out the person to blame or really he'd want to beat that person to a pulp so he could understand what Dave was feeling. Dave had lost nearly 30 years with his son and that son would never get to meet his real mother, since she was dead, so Dave had every right to be at least extremely upset, if not downright pissed.

"Alright," Aaron agreed. "I'm upset too, but not as upset as you are. I'm upset that Spencer didn't grow up with his real family and that you didn't get to see him grow up, but I know my emotions aren't as strong as yours, since he isn't my son. I'm upset at the situation more for your sake then for my own, because what happened nearly 30 years ago was a great travesty of justice, something that never should have occurred."

"It shouldn't have, but we know things like this happen all the time, although it wasn't as common back in the early 1980s as it is today, which is probably why William could get away with it." Spencer said. "I think I too should stay in the background unless it's necessary for me to play a more active role. I'm not sure I can control my own temper and yes, I do have one, even if I normally don't lose it."

"I'll take Morgan with me," Aaron decided. "He will be able to intimidate William Reid I'm sure and he is really upset on your behalves, since he's really fond of Reid."

"I noticed," Dave said while he was smiling just a little

Spencer said nothing, but blushed a little.

"Well, even if he doesn't confess, it won't matter, as we have enough evidence to put him away for a very long time," Dave said. "Certainly long enough that he'll likely only be leaving prison in a wooden box, unless he offends one of the other convicts and gets himself killed sooner. I won't be mourning his demise if that happens."

"Him getting himself killed in the shower or the laundry room or even out in the exercise yard is very possible, as we all know how rough places like prison can be, especially the federal ones which is were he'll likely be headed," Spencer said. "He did commit a major crime against a man that was an FBI agent even back when that event occurred, so I can't see any judge showing him leniency since kidnapping is a federal offense. Also it's much worse, because the crime was committed against an officer of the law not just an ordinary citizen, so no court in the world is going to show him any mercy."

The other two men agreed with that, but were silent, before Hotch left then to go collect Morgan and start his interrogation.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2

Flashback

Both Dave and Spencer stared at the results of the blood test, that both had taken several weeks ago.

The lab had been backed up and it hadn't been priority, though Dave still could've quietly used his influence to make it so, but decided against it.

"Well, this just proves what we already knew," Dave said finally coming out of his shock.

"I guess you really are my father," Spencer said looking just as shocked.

The blood test showed 52.5% match, which was quite possible and Spencer had really expected the numbers to be in that range.

"We both already knew it really," Dave said and Spencer nodded.

"We did, but what we knew in our minds, wasn't hard evidence. These results are something we can show a judge whenever we take this to court," Spencer said.

His son did make a very good point, Dave thought. "You're right, knowing it in our hearts wasn't evidence, but we certainly have evidence now."

Spencer said nothing seeming lost in thought.

"What's on your mind?" Dave finally asked.

"I was just imagining what my life would have been like if I grown up with your family like I should have. I've always been Spencer Reid and I'm wondering if I would have been happier as Peter Daniel Rossi."

"There's no way of knowing, but you would've had two parents that would have adored you and that would have had a huge impact on your upbringing. You would've had a very protective and loving older brother, though I'm not saying there wouldn't have been some teasing involved," Dave said placing a gentle hand on Spencer's shoulder.

His son actually smiled at that and Dave was sure that he was wishing that he had actually grown up in that environment, something Dave couldn't blame him for.

"I'm sure I would've had a much happier childhood if William Reid hadn't decided to take a baby and switch it with his own just because his son had a bad heart," Spencer admitted quietly after a moment.

"We would have sent you to a special school if possible, because your intelligence should have been nurtured and if not we would've hired tutors and gone the homeschool route. We never would have allowed all the stuff that happened to you in school to continue. I would've gone down to the school if necessary and sorted it out and Caroline would've done the same."

"Diana Reid did that often enough, when she was well," Spencer said quietly.

"It's okay to call her your mother, because I know you grew up with her and you love her. I also realize that you never knew your real mother. Diana Reid loved and cared about you, even if your father didn't and for that alone I will always be grateful to her," Dave offered and Spencer smiled at him, a smile that was tinged with relief.

"Yes, she did love me and as I said a few weeks ago I'm sure she had no idea I wasn't her son," Spencer said. "I think it's better if she never finds out actually, not with the schizophrenia. I'm not actually sure how she'll accept the news. It would devastate her at the very least to realize what her ex-husband did and her mental health is rather delicate."

"If that's what you want," Dave said, and Spencer nodded more firmly. "I hope you don't mind if I call you Peter sometimes because that's what Caroline and I named you. It's going to take me awhile to absorb that you might be my son, but your Spencer now."

"I would be willing to change my middle name to either Peter or Daniel, but Spencer is the name my mother gave me and I've always been called that. I think it would be rather weird to be called anything else."

Dave nodded because he could understand where his son was coming from. He had been Spencer William Reid all his life and changing his middle name was a huge concession on his part.

"That's something we'll have to talk about farther at some point, but I'm certainly not against the idea," Dave said.

"I didn't figure you would be," Spencer smiled, which was a tad melancholy. "I'm doing it largely for you, but also because I hate my middle name, because its the same as the man that kidnapped me. It has nothing to do with this recent revelation. I've hated it for years ever since 'he' left. I don't use my middle name hardly at all. However, this gives me an opportunity to change it for a real reason, instead of just doing it because I dislike it so much. You named me Peter Daniel, so I'll be proud to add at least one of those to my name while at the same time getting rid of one I've hated for almost 20 years."

Dave indeed understood where his son was coming from. He hated the man that had kidnapped him from his real family, even if he had only mildly disliked him before he had realized that's what had happened. What Spencer was doing was changing his middle name to either Peter or Daniel while at the same time getting rid of the one he hated, which would really poke William Reid in the eye, though he wasn't sure if Spencer had realized that yet.

"I understand," Dave said and Spencer glanced at him and saw that Dave truly did understand where he was coming from. "Are you going to change your last name or keep Reid?"

"I hadn't thought that far ahead," Spencer admitted, looking rather distracted. "I'll have to seriously think about it. My professional reputation is under Reid and I'm not exactly sure Strauss would allow two Rossis to be in the same unit anyway. I know we can't keep this from her, especially if we go after William Reid for his actions so long ago, but still, I established my career under my original surname, so I'm not sure about changing it."

Spencer had made some very good points, Dave admitted. He would love for Spencer to take on his surname but it was his son's decision and there was so much going on right now that there was no rush.

"As for having two Rossis in the same unit there is no rules against it," Dave said and Spencer nodded, because he knew that was true. "Still, it's your decision and I won't force you to change it if you don't want to."

"I will seriously think about it," Spencer promised. "There's going to be so much going on in the next few months that I think it can wait, as there is no point of rushing into a decision, since it isn't life or death. Let's concentrate on bringing down the man that took me from my real family, before we think about things like changing my surname."

That was sensible, Dave decided, so he nodded.

"Well, whether you decide to change your surname or not I want to welcome you to the family. I'm only sorry that Caroline will never know that her son survived," Dave said looking sad.

"I know and I'm more sorry about that then you know, as I would've loved to have met your wife since she was my mother," Spencer said soberly. "We're going to bring the man to justice that was behind my kidnapping in the first place and I'll be happy with that. Don't misunderstand me I love the mother that raised me, until the schizophrenia hit, but still..."

"Still, you would have liked to meet and get to know your real one, even if you already had one that you loved," Dave supplied and Spencer nodded.

"Yes," Spencer admitted, looking at Dave to see if he was offended.

"I'm not going to be offended just because you have another parent that you love," Dave said. "Love isn't finite, it's infinite. There's all different kinds of love out there and this would be something you would know instinctively if you had been raised properly. You love the woman that raised you and thought she was your mother. There's nothing wrong with this. I've had plenty of people that I've loved over the years and was close enough so that I considered then like an aunt and uncle or a sibling. I love Jack, Aaron's son for example and he's like a nephew to me."

"Yeah, I love Jack too," Spencer's smiled relaxing. "He's so cute and is so eager to learn, how could I not? I shouldn't be so surprised that he's so eager to learn considering that his father at least is very intelligent."

"But it's so different from when you were school," Dave gently suggested and Spencer nodded.

Dave had learned a lot about his son's past by now and a lot of it made him furious, but since there was nothing he could do at this late date he controlled his anger.

"Not every student bullied me, but they also didn't defend me or help me in anyway, not wanting to get involved," Spencer said. "It would've been nice to have a brother who defended me, or maybe I would've been able to defend myself if I had grown up with you instead of William Reid."

"There's no way of really knowing, but it's very possible that you would have had better skills. You would've at least have grown up with better social skills because Caroline would've made sure of that. If Caroline and I had sent you to public school you likely would've been able to blend in better. I doubt very much that either Caroline I would've allowed you to skip grades, but we would have tried to find special programs that would have nurtured your intelligence. Your intelligence is a wonderful thing and should have been nurtured by William Reid since he kidnapped you in the first place, but I know from what you've told me that he resented you for it."

"That's the understatement of the decade," Spencer snorted. "I know you want to at least punch him and though, I'm not usually a man that feels like doing something so violent, I want to do the same. You would think if he was going to kidnap another man's son he at least would've treated them decently."

"People kidnap children all the time for seriously stupid reasons," Dave said.

"I know," Spencer answered soberly.

Of course, most people never expected bad things to happen to them until they get slapped in the face with some sort of tragedy.

"So now that we know when are we going to tell the team?" Spencer asked suddenly.

"I think we need a little time to get used to the fact that we really are father and son," Dave suggested in a gentle tone. "I know we knew weeks ago, but it wasn't really positive until the blood tests came back. I know both of us have been rather distracted with work, but in the back of my subconscious at least it was always on my mind."

"Mine too," Spencer confirmed.

"Being able to put my mind to something else has really helped the time pass faster than I thought it would. Normally, I'm a very patient man, but finding out for sure whether or not you were my son was more important to me than anything else has been in years," Dave said.

"I can certainly understand that," Spencer agreed. "It was important to me too and I truly wish I had grown up as a Rossi instead of a Reid. We can't change the past though, so the only option is to move forward."

"It will take time for us to truly get to know each other as there is only so much you can find out just by observing someone. You've told me a lot of your past and I think it's only fair that you know some of mine," Dave said. "We could have lunch or dinner together as often as time allows, at least on the weekends, since we're usually not on a case then. I'll be happy to cook for these occasions, just like I did when James was young."

"Sounds good," Spencer said smiling. "I already know you're an excellent chef, so I won't have to worry about getting food poisoning from anything you prepare and it's certainly better in this case then going to the restaurant so that we can talk without worrying about anybody overhearing our conversation."

"That's why I suggested it," Dave said smiling himself.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~

Several weeks later

"So the two of you are actually father and son?" Morgan asked staring at Spencer and Dave in disbelief.

"Yes," Spencer answered calmly having finally absorbed the news that he and Dave were actually related. The two of them had spent the last few weeks getting to know each other better then they already did and had already had several dinners over at Dave's place.

"So how did you find out?" JJ asked.

"I noticed the birthmark on his left hip and it was identical to the one that Peter had when he was born," Dave explained. "That wasn't the only thing though that convinced me that Spencer was the son I thought had died nearly 30 years ago, as there were a lot of similarities that I noticed. If you're really paying attention he's a perfect combination of me and Caroline. Caroline had brown hair the same shade as Spencer's, but there were numerous other things that reminded me of myself when I was younger. I put it down to coincidence at first until I saw the birthmark, it was then I knew."

"But a lot of people have the same type of birthmark," Emily said.

"We're aware of that," Spencer told Emily calmly. "Even though we were both sure that we were father and son we each had blood drawn and then had DNA testing done. Both Dave and I share over half of our markers which means that we're closely related."

"To share that many markers means you must be father and son or siblings," Aaron said speaking for the first time.

"Yep," Dave said smiling.

"So that means William Reid kidnapped Spencer here from the hospital nearly 30 years ago," Morgan said looking rather furious at that.

"Yes, it does and I'm hoping that we can gather enough evidence to make sure he pays for his crime, even if it's decades to late," Spencer said.

"Which is something that both of us agree on a hundred percent," Dave added and the rest of the team nodded at this for they agreed to. William Reid deserved to spend the rest of his life in prison for kidnapping and any other crime they could lay at his door.

"You know we'll help you in anyway we can," JJ said. "What that man did was not only against the law it was cruel. He made a family believe that their son had died and didn't care that they would grieve for the death of their child. I'm not sure that I would ever be able to get over the death of my child and if I then discovered several decades later that they didn't die after all, well, that would reopen a lot of old wounds.

"I'm surprised he could get away with it though," Penelope said speaking for the first time. "Aren't neonatal units in hospitals usually pretty closely watched?"

"They are nowadays, but back when I was born not so much," Spencer told Penelope. "Kidnapping a baby out of the hospital back then wasn't as common as it is today, so such places weren't as closely monitored, as they are now. All he would've had to do was keep his eye out for anybody coming who could see him, a nurse, a doctor or somebody coming to see their child who had just been born. He could've used the excuse for instance that he wanted to spend some time with his son before he died. The nurses would have understood that and wouldn't have been at all suspicious that a father wanted to hold his son as much as possible before he passed away, because of a medical problem that couldn't be fixed at the time. Those nurses could've left to fulfill other duties, which likely would have left him alone just long enough to make the switch. Even today babies are kidnapped out of hospitals all the time and a much closer eye is kept on them now, then in the past. It likely would've taken him only a minute or two if he'd already noted where the cameras were and what babies he wanted to switch."

"That is so sad," Penelope decided and everybody agreed with her, especially Emily and JJ who felt bad for Spencer who hadn't grown up with his real family and also for Dave who had believed his son was dead for almost 30 years.

"We'll do our best to gather evidence against William Reid," Aaron said. "Not only will it help two people that we know and respect, this could also easily be a federal case, because it's a kidnapping of a child, even if that child is now all grown up. Just because it happened so long ago doesn't mean that the statute of limitations has run out."

"The statute on kidnappings never runs out," Morgan said and Aaron nodded having known this.

"How are you going to get past Strauss though, who will probably want to turn it over to the local police," Emily asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I have enough pull to make this a federal investigation and technically, it should be anyway," Dave answered immediately. "Strauss won't risk going against me by trying to stop us from investigating, especially since this should be a federal case. Strauss might be a bitch and might not care about anybody on the team, but she's not stupid. This might be an old crime, but I have proof that it should still be active right here beside me."

The others know he was talking about Spencer.

"Spencer can confirm that he is my son and we can also show the higher-ups the DNA testing we both had done if Strauss just wants to cause problems, though I don't think she will, because her career is very important to her. She might interfere in the team more than any of us like, but she's not going to prevent us from doing our jobs."

"I agree with, Dave," Aaron said. "This should be a federal case and Strauss will know that and so if she's smart will give us the go-ahead to investigate."

"Well, that makes me happy," Morgan said smiling, though it was rather grim. "I would love to help take William Reid down and not, just because Spencer, is like a brother to me, but because what he did was very wrong. I mean we put the bad guys behind bars for a living and there might be more evil people out there than William Reid, but this case is going to affect all of us more then normal, simply because we know the two people that it happened to. Rossi and Reid did not deserve what happened to them, but then nobody does."

"And if we manage to put William Reid behind bars it will at least give you two closure," Emily suggested. "I know it won't make up for all those lost years that you should've had together, but at least the person who made it happen will be where he belongs."

"Yes, it will give us both closure," Dave agreed and Spencer nodded. "I know it won't change the fact that both Caroline and I grieved for the loss of our son or the fact that James never got to grow up with his brother, but at least the man responsible will be spending the rest of his life behind bars preferably in a federal prison."

"And that will have to be enough," Spencer added.

"You know that federal prisons are tough places, much tougher than a state prison since that's where a lot of the worse criminals are," Aaron reminded his subordinates who nodded.

"I know he likely won't have an easy time once they find out that he's an attorney that put a lot of criminals behind bars," Spencer said.

"Still, you wish it were different," JJ said sympathetically not letting on to the fact that she had a crush on her coworker for the last couple years at least, but Spence never seemed to notice. Either that or he was deliberately ignoring it.

"I might wish things were different, but I'll just have to accept things as they are and putting him behind bars will just have to do," Spencer said.

"This was a shock to both of us and it might've finally sunk in that we're related, but that doesn't mean it wasn't rather difficult," Dave explained to the others.

"If I had found out that I had been kidnapped as a baby..." Emily said not finishing her sentence.

"It would certainly be enough to shock anyone and for that person that had done such a thing to them to want to get revenge, especially if Spencer's childhood wasn't exactly very happy," Penelope who had been mostly silent said. "I know we don't know everything that you went through as a child, but what I at least do know is enough to make my blood boil, so I can understand why you would like to deal with that man yourself," Penelope added looking at Spencer who nodded solemnly.

"I might want to deal with him myself, but I'm not about to risk landing myself in prison," Spencer shrugged.

"You have every right to feel these emotions so long as you don't let them get out of control," Dave told his son and Spencer nodded. "You know I feel them as well."

"It's human nature to want to get back is someone who has caused you so much pain," Aaron said, "but although I know it's the regular reaction when finding out such earthshattering news it's still not the way. You would only be doing both of yourselves harm, because then the rest of the team would be forced to arrest you and the two of you would be going to prison along with the actual kidnapper."

"We know this Aaron and that's why both Spencer and I are not going to do what we really want to," Dave promised his old protégé. "We both know the consequences if we did what we wanted instead of letting justice be done."

"I know I just thought I'd remind you in case as I don't want to see either one of you behind bars, as neither one of you deserve that," Aaron said. "I know you'll both do the right thing, because you both believe in seeing justice done no matter your personal feelings on this one."

"Perhaps, if my childhood had actually been a happy one, I wouldn't feel so many strong negative emotions towards him, though I would still want to see justice done," Spencer said. "I just can't help imagining what my childhood actually would've been like if I had grown up with Dave, his wife and James."

"Which is only natural," Emily suggested.

"Of course it is, you've had a big shock, both of you," JJ said.

"Still, you don't have to worry I'm not going to do anything stupid no matter how much I at least want to punch him. Normally, you know, I'm not a man that feels strong emotions or at least I'm good at controlling them, but in this case, I think it's more than warranted," Spencer assured the team.

"I want to punch him myself, but know I can't," Aaron admitted. "I know how much pain you went through Dave when you had believed that your son Peter had died. Dave told me all about it after we had known each other for years, and the grief still felt hung around him like a cloak, but only when that particular subject came up, as he had mostly put it behind him."

"Yes, I did go through a lot of pain, but then so did Caroline," Dave said. "What parent doesn't go through hell when they believe that their child is dead at least those that love their children. Who knows if Caroline and I would've had a third if we hadn't believed our son had died.

"You never stop grieving for your children, even if you don't think about it every day after awhile," Emily suggested.

"Of course you don't," Morgan said. "I know very well that my mamma would grieve for the rest of her life if anything happened to me on the job or to my two sisters. So pretty boy are you going keep your name or change it to why your little family named you."

"You know it hadn't occurred to me that he could do that," Penelope said.

"This is something that Dave and I have already thought about and even discussed a little," said Spencer glancing at Dave. "I told him I wanted to keep my first name because the woman I believed was my mother gave it to me and I don't believe at all that she was in anyway involved in her husband's stupid decision. Diana Reid never would have agreed with her husband plan and I suspect he never would've been able to pull it off if she hadn't likely been out of it due to the drugs they gave her for the birth, combined with exhaustion. As for my middle name, well, I'll be happy to change it since it happens to be the same as the man who kidnapped me, as for my last name I'm still thinking about it, but it isn't really super urgent right now."

"You could always use one of those combined surnames," JJ suggested.

"That's not a bad idea," Spencer said glancing Dave, who looked like he agreed with JJ's suggestion.

"Well, that would certainly let me keep my professional name," Spencer said. "I might just do that, even if double-barreled surnames are so awkward."

"I'll take this to the proper authorities," Aaron promised. "We should be able to start gathering evidence against William Reid in a few days. If Strauss denies that this is a federal case then I'll take it above her head and I'm sure Dave will back me up on that."

"Absolutely," Dave immediately concurred. "I want William Reid to suffer just as much as Caroline and I did, but I'll settle for seeing justice done. James isn't even aware that he has a brother, because we never told him, since he was only two when Peter was born. Caroline and I just decided that it was our secret so James believes that he was an only child and doesn't know that at some point his mother was pregnant again."

"How do you think your son's going to react after finding out that he has a brother he never knew about?" JJ asked.

"I know my son and he'll be excited and happy to discover that he has a younger brother," Dave answered immediately. "He'll also be furious that he was kidnapped right out of the hospital and that my wife and I believed he was dead until just a few weeks ago. James is a very caring individual much like his mother actually at least when it comes to certain things. James also has a temper much like I do, so he'll want to punch William Reid at least once in the mouth and it won't surprise me at all if he wants to beat him to a pulp."

"Which is why he's not going to be told that he has a brother until after William Reid is behind bars," Spencer added glancing at Dave who nodded. "For one thing I'm still trying to get used to the fact that I'm not related to the man we're going after and that I actually have a father who cares about my existence. I truly wish I had grown up in Dave's family, but since we can't change the past there's no point of dwelling on it. I just don't think I need to meet James until after this has been settled, as I have enough to deal with right now."

"Which is something I understood, so I agreed. Spencer is still trying to cope with the fact that he isn't blood related to William Reid and that he has a father that has always loved him very much, even though I believed he was dead," Dave said. "I would love to introduce James to him, but that can wait until after William Reid is either behind bars or dead."

The rest of the team knew he was referring to the fact that William Reid might decide to die by cop as a lot of criminals did. That wasn't likely in this case for as far as a team knew the kidnapping out of the hospital nearly 30 years ago was the only crime that the Senior Reid had ever committed. He was also an attorney and William Reid might try to wiggle out of his fate in a court of law, but he wasn't likely going to try to run and then be killed by a cop or one of the team. Still, they were well aware of these facts and so they would make sure they didn't happen because the whole team was now committed to seeing William Reid in prison for what remained of his miserable life. It wouldn't be near long enough for Dave or for Spencer either the others knew considering that William Reid was well into his 50s at least, so would likely be dead in 10 or 20 years, but it would have to do.

End flashback

~~~Criminal Minds~~~


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3

William Reid couldn't stop shaking once Agent Morgan and Agent Hotchner had left. Agent Morgan in particular had scared him silly the way he kept glaring at him, Agent Hotchner also looked upset, but he was apparently better at controlling his emotions, or that was just what the two men had wanted him to believe. They had questioned him thoroughly, but even though he hadn't confessed they had informed him that they had a enough evidence to send him to prison for a very long time, certainly long enough that he wouldn't be leaving, except in a wooden box. From what he understood the team was especially close knit and apparently Agent Morgan was rather fond of Spencer, though William wondered how that could be because it wasn't like he was anything but a walking robot after all. Smarter than any 10 people put together, which to him meant that he should just be put down like a rabid dog to make it easier on those of more ordinary intelligence. He didn't believe that people who were as smart as the boy he had kidnapped deserved to live, because it made it harder for ordinary people like himself. He thought all those with such a high intelligence were an abomination, not even considering that people like Spencer were an evolution of human intelligence, ever since mankind had worked itself out of the primeval ooze millions of years ago. He had wished for years that he had switched his own son with another baby one of more normal intelligence like himself, but how had he been supposed to know?

It never even occurred to William Reid that there was nothing wrong with being super intelligent or with the fact, that just because Spencer tended to internalize his emotions didn't mean he didn't have them. Of course, that shouldn't be surprising, because he didn't care about anyone except himself, certainly not his wife or the son he had kidnapped from another man.

"There is really nothing I can do for you, Will," the lawyer told the other man, obviously disgusted by what he had learned. "I might be able to get them to lessen the charges, but considering the man's son you kidnapped is an FBI agent and was when he was born, I don't think that's too likely, because even if they did I doubt that David Rossi or his son would agree. It's not like I can intimidate them into lessening the charges like I could someone else, as they're well-versed in the law and know their rights, so subtly threatening them would be useless. David Rossi at least has enough pull within the FBI to make the charges stick, since you actually did commit the crime and this is very personal to him, well, I can see him using his influence to make sure that you spend the rest your life in prison and you're only lucky that the death penalty isn't on the table. The fact, that you made him and his now deceased wife believe his son had died just because you decided to switch him with your own, well, you're going to be facing charges of emotional trauma as well as the kidnapping one. The BAU team is nothing if not thorough and they have already gathered enough evidence against you to see you in prison for many years, even without your confession."

"But isn't the evidence suspect considering that father and son are the ones at the center of the case," William pleaded.

"Maybe under normal circumstances," the lawyer said, "but both men have impeccable reputations and have put many criminals behind bars in their careers, so in this case I don't believe that that line is going to work on the judge. Both have been in law enforcement for years and a cop has to know how to be objective, even if it doesn't always work like that, since sometimes you can't help but get personally involved depending on circumstances. Both men have every right to want to punch you for what you did and likely beat you within an inch of your life, but neither one is likely to do anything that will risk their case or get themselves in trouble with their bosses. I suspect that's why neither one of them has been in here to interview you, because they're likely not sure that they can control their tempers and they wouldn't want to be accused of police brutality or of forcing you to confess, which are accusations I could present to the judge if certain events happened so I could."

William slumped and knew that he was going to end up in prison likely for the rest of his life since he was already well into his 50s.

"No, both men are smart enough to stay as far away from that particular aspect of the case, as they can," the lawyer added.

"What are the odds that father and son would actually run into each other," William muttered to himself not paying his attorney any attention.

"Showing that you were truly sorry for what you did all those years ago would go a long way to giving you less time in prison, but I can already tell that you're not sorry at all, not really. You actually believe it was your God-given right to do what you did," The lawyer said in sudden realization, looking disgusted.

"I needed a son carry on the family name," William said.

"And there were other ways to go about it, like adoption or even IVF if you insisted on someone with your DNA. Alright, IVF wasn't as much as option back then, as there wasn't as much of success rate so many years ago, but nowadays, it's quite common for people to go through it," the attorney said shaking his head in disgust. "You're an attorney and you certainly make enough money to afford IVF, even if I know it's an expensive process. You could even have gotten married again and had another child. Stealing another man's son was not the way to go William and I feel sorry for the family that grieved for their son's supposed death not realizing that he was still alive. You made another family go through hell, by making them believe that their son had died. I'll do my job and try my best to at least get the judge to not give you the rest of your life in prison, but only because it's my job. Personally, I'm totally disgusted with your actions, just as any decent person would be."

The attorney didn't mention that he wasn't going to go out of his way to get his client off, although he would try to the best of his ability, but he would be perfectly happy if this piece of scum spent the rest of his life in a federal prison, somewhere like Gitmo.

The lawyer didn't think that the Senior Reid would be going to one of the toughest federal prisons on the planet, but so long as he was put away he would be happy. He couldn't help but think about his own children who were mostly grown and out on their own and wondering how he would have reacted if he had discovered he had a son he had believed had died and then he turned out to be alive.

"It was spur of the moment," William admitted still not looking very sorry for his actions of nearly 3 decades ago.

"That doesn't make it right. You didn't just commit a minor crime, you committed a federal offense, so you can expect that organization to come down on you like a hammer. No federal judge in the world is going to let you off with just a slap on the wrist. It's not like you just committed minor theft, which is a lot of times just gets you community service depending on the circumstances."

"I'm screwed," William said.

"Yes, you are," the lawyer told him. "As I promised I'll do my best for you, but I'm not sure how much I can do, as it will all depend on a lot of different factors."

William Reid didn't answer and simply put his head into his hands, knowing that he was completely at the mercy of two people who weren't going to show him the least remorse considering he had kidnapped the older agent's son and it didn't help his case that that same son was now also a member of the FBI.

No, he expected to be shown absolutely no mercy, as he knew those two would bring as many charges against him as they possibly could no matter how minor.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~

The attorney approached the BAU team and asked to speak to David Rossi and his son for a moment.

The others looked at each other and Hotch nodded, letting the other two know it wouldn't do the case any harm if they talked to the attorney for a minute so Dave and Spencer rose from the table.

Once they were relatively alone the attorney said, "I just want you to know that I'm totally disgusted by my client's actions. I'll do my job and defending him, as that's what I'm paid for, but if he gets put in prison for the rest of his life, well, I'll privately consider that a victory. I never thought that Will was capable of such a serious crime, but then, I suppose, I realize I don't know the man at all. I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry for what the two of you went through, but I'm still going to do my best to get my client off. Normally, I would keep my personal opinion to myself, but in this case I felt both of you deserved to know."

"We understand," Dave said glancing at Spencer who looked like he did indeed understand where the lawyer was coming from if his expression was anything to go by.

"That's all I wanted to say and then give you my condolences for what happened, even if it happened nearly 3 decades ago," the attorney added.

"Thank you for that," Spencer said finally.

"Yes, thank you. You certainly have more compassion then most attorneys I know," Dave said.

"It just made me think about what if same thing happened to my own kids? I still have a teenage daughter at home who won't be starting college until next year."

"Still thank you for your condolences, even if we know you will do your best to get your client off, but then that's your job," Spencer said, shaking the attorney's hand Dave doing the same.

"So what did Mr. Silverston want?" Hotch asked.

"He wanted to give us his condolences and said that he's totally disgusted by his client, but that he will do the job he's being paid for. I get the feeling though that he won't try too hard to get William Reid off," Dave explained.

"Well, that was really nice of him," JJ said smiling.

"He also took something of a risk, as he could get in trouble for what he said, even replaced, as the Senior Reid's attorney," Aaron said. "I'm not saying that it wasn't very nice of him, but it could still get him in trouble, because he's working for the man we're going to do our best to put in prison."

"He didn't give us any privileged information," Spencer told Hotch who nodded.

"And normally, he wouldn't've said anything, but he said it made him think of his daughter who goes to college next year and what if she had been kidnapped as a baby? What if somebody had decided to switch their daughter who was dying with another child that looked similar? That was something that I could understand and he has my respect for even going as far as he did," Dave added.

"No, one was near enough to hear what he said other then Dave and I and I'm certainly not going to say anything, because I could tell he was sincere," Spencer said.

"No, I won't say anything either, because he was actually nice enough to come and apologize for what his client did, even though he had nothing to do with it, something that we know most attorneys would never do no matter how they actually felt," Dave added quietly.

Hotch nodded and the team went back to work.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~

Las Vegas court

Several months later

The trial had been going on for several hours, when the attorney that was presenting the case said, "Your honor, I call Dr. Spencer Reid to the stand. I believe that you will understand why I request his testimony, once you hear some memories from his childhood. William Reid kidnapped Agent Rossi's son and yet from what I've learned treated him worse then mud on the bottom of his shoe. Mr. Reid didn't kidnap Agent Rossi's son because he wanted a child since his own was going to die due to a medical problem that was unfixable at the time. No, he kidnapped Agent Reid just to have a son to carry on the family name, even though there was plenty of other ways he could've had another child, even back so long ago."

"But Agent Reid's memories are bound to be distorted at least, if not faded to the point that he couldn't possibly remember what happened to him so long ago," The Senior Reid's attorney protested.

"Mr. Silverston does have a point," the judge said.

"Your honor, I have with me here a document that certifies that Agent Reid's memory is eidetic, and so good that he has often testified in court on things he sees or hears in his work. Agent Reid remembers his childhood with perfect clarity and in fact, he'll never be able to forget it."

The attorney didn't say so, but he definitely sympathized, because Agent Reid would never be able to forget anything he experienced, no matter how horrendous.

The judge gestured for the lawyer to approach the bench so he did so and handed over the document.

The judge read it then nodded.

"I will allow this," the judge decided. "Agent Reid's memory has indeed been certified by the appropriate authorities."

Silverston tried to protest, though it was clear his heart wasn't in it, but the judge waved him away showing him the document he had been handed.

"Agent Reid?"

"Yes, your honor?" Spencer asked respectfully, as he rose from where he was sitting.

"Are you willing to give us some memories of your childhood with the Reids? I'm not going to order you too as I know those memories are probably painful for you."

"Yes sir, I'm willing. Anything to put the man responsible for kidnapping me from my real family behind bars," Reid answered firmly.

William Reid who had been listening silently put his head in his hands and knew then that his goose was completely cooked. He had kidnapped a baby from the hospital switching it with his own who was dying and to top it off he hadn't treated that child, even halfway decently. No, he had left it to Diana to give the child love and affection and he had gone out of his way to make snide little comments about the child once he had realized how intelligent he really was. He hadn't done a thing when the boy had been severely bullied and had expected him to handle it, even though he had just been a child at the time.

He hadn't wanted to go to the bother, figuring it would teach the boy how to defend himself, but he knew intellectually that it was the parents responsibility to protect the child and from what he knew the bullying had been way over the top of what was normal in any high school. Being knocked down to be trampled on or pushed into lockers was way past what was considered normal bullying. He was surprised that the teachers had done nothing about it, but then, Spencer wasn't one to air his troubles to any authority figures. He knew very well that was a lesson that the boy had learned from him, since he had never done anything at all to protect him, like a good parent should their child.

William still wondered what the odds were that the real father would run into his son, the son he had believed was dead, not that it mattered really, since it had happened, even though the odds had to be against it.

Spencer was sworn in as soon as he had taken his seat and began speaking immediately.

The Senior Reid listened, as Spencer told some of the things that happened to him as a kid calmly, his voice unemotional about how his father had never done a thing about any of them. He spoke of how his mother had used to get indigent and tried to correct the situation until she had been to ill to do so.

William felt absolutely no sympathy for any of the things that Spencer recounted on the stand, even if he knew intellectually that he was screwed, if the way the jury was reacting to Spencer's words was any indication

"I believe that's more than enough, Agent Reid," the judge said after ten minutes, looking outraged at what he was hearing and Spencer nodded falling silent.

"Your honor, how do we know that Agent Reid isn't lying just to get my client convicted?" Silverston asked. "He could very well be making up these little anecdotes of his childhood."

"Your honor, Agent Reid's testimony is not under scrutiny here, as not only has he been a member of the BAU, since he was 23 years old, as soon as he'd completed the FBI Academy, he has helped put numerous criminals behind bars and his reputation is impeccable. A man with his reputation has no reason to lie in a court of law, especially not when there is enough evidence to put this man away without lying."

The judge nodded agreeing with the attorney's words.

"So Agent Reid you do believe that your mother was in any way involved with kidnapping another man's child?" the attorney asked.

"No, sir, I do not, as Diana Reid never would have allowed her husband to do such a stupid thing. If she had even known that her husband was thinking about taking such a course of action she would have likely yelled at him or at least given him the lecture of his life, possibly even threatened divorce. No, I suspect that due to the drugs she was under that she had no idea what her husband had done and the schizophrenia, although it wasn't as prevalent at the time from what I know, might also have played a part. She never would have agreed to take another family's child allowing that family to believe that their child was dead. She would never have wanted a family to grieve for the loss of their child when that child was still alive."

"Very well," the judge said.

"Agent Reid, what do you believe your father's motive's were for his actions," the lawyer asked. "You are the one that knows that man that you believed was your father the best."

"I can't say for sure," Spencer said, "as I never imagined he had committed such a serious crime. I always knew that he didn't care about me or about the woman I thought was my mother either, but there is a large difference between being selfish and uncaring to committing such an act. There are a lot of selfish, uncaring people in the world that never commit a major crime, but I would postulate that he was so desperate to carry on the family name that he wasn't thinking clearly. I believe, he didn't think about his actions, not clearly, as he likely was panicking, as he knew that his wife would be unlikely to be able to have another child, because of the schizophrenia and also because she had a hard time giving birth. I know that my mother would have had to go off her medication, just like she did when she was pregnant with her son who died, as it was possible that the medication would have a detrimental effect on her pregnancy as the child might have developed problems later in life. From what I understand doing so once was very hard on her and that was before the disease was as bad as it was later in her life."

"Why do you think he just didn't get a divorce then find another wife?" the attorney asked next.

"Back when I was born, an attorney had to have an impeccable reputation and a divorce would likely have ruined his career, because values were different back then," Spencer answered causing the jury to murmur. "When he did finally leave me and my mother I was ten and I remember how much furor there was the fact that he had divorced his wife, because such things just weren't done back so long ago, not by people in certain professions anyway, but since it was the early 90s society had changed enough by that time that he kept his job and his reputation for the most part remained intact, though there was some backlash from certain sections of society."

"Did he leave you or his ex-wife anyway to provide for yourselves, since it's obvious that your mother was unable to work due to her illness," the lawyer asked.

"He did provide us money every month, the bare minimum needed for us to survive, but that was as far as it went, as I never saw him again until Agent Rossi and I realized that I wasn't William Reid's son at all," Spencer replied

"What caused Agent Rossi to realize that you were his son. After all, you had been working together for three years by that point," the lawyer asked.

"Agent Rossi and I were sharing a hotel when we were in Los Angeles. Normally, I share with Agent Morgan, but he had taken a few days off to see his family in Chicago. I was getting undressed for bed when he noticed a birthmark I have on my left hip. This birthmark is the exact same one that his son had when he was born and while this is not a sure indicator, there were also other things he had noticed over the three years we had worked together that he had put down to coincidence. It was just the birthmark clenched it for him. Also from my own research my birthmark is unique, as I can find no indication that anybody else has ever had one like it, so I couldn't blame Agent Rossi for his certainty that I was the son he and his wife named Peter Daniel Rossi, a son that he had believed had died nearly 30 years ago. The blood test we had done, just confirmed, what both of us already knew."

"Thank you, Agent Reid," the lawyer said.

"Agent Reid, you can go sit back down," the judge said.

Spencer went to sit back down beside his father who had been listening closely to everything his son revealed. Spencer well knew that Dave was likely very upset at what he had heard, but wouldn't allow it to show it until they had privacy.

He suspected that the two of them would be talking, just as soon as they were done.

The trial continued, but in the end William Reid was convicted and would be spending the rest of his life in a federal prison.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~

"You did very well in court today," Dave said very proud of his son.

"I've testified in court a lot over the last few years, so it's not like it was unusual," Spencer said, downplaying the emotional impact that talking about his childhood had had on him in front of several dozen strangers.

"This was different and you know it," Dave told Spencer firmly. "Normally, you're not testifying about your own past, which is much harder then just telling the court about the evidence from whatever case is being presented. Talking about other people's crimes is way different from talking about a past that is painful. Don't think I don't know you were holding your emotions in check with an iron will as I've often done the same thing myself depending on circumstances. None of us would be able to do what we do if we didn't control our emotions at some of the stuff we hear in interviews, as some people can be really depraved. The stuff that effects us is different for every person, but when it comes to emotional trauma, that affects everybody, even if that trauma is different for every person. I know you're used to holding your emotions in check, but believe me that's not healthy. All of us have different ways of dealing with the stuff we hear practically every day."

"I'm just not used to having a parent that actually cares about my welfare," Spencer said finally. "I'm not saying my mother didn't care about me in her own way. She's on medication now I know, but still, I can't tell a lot about what I do, firstly because it would just upset her, but also because a lot of what we do is only for certain people with the proper security clearance to know."

"You can talk to me if you want, though I know that we don't have the close father/son relationship we should have," Dave said.

"We are working on it, but it's just going to take time," Spencer said.

"I know," Dave said sighing gustily. "While I'm certainly glad that justice was finally done, I still want to strangle that man with my bare hands. I know perfectly well that me wanting to do so is perfectly normal, but it doesn't stop my feelings."

"On that subject the two of us are in agreement," Spencer chuckled darkly. "Of course, in my case, it wouldn't be the first time I've wanted to strangle him, though I certainly never expected to feel those emotions again after he left when I was a child."

"I know it must have been hard for you to talk about your childhood, even a little," Dave offered.

Spencer gave him a rather world weary look, then shrugged nonchalantly and Dave thought his son wasn't going to say anything on the subject, but finally he said quietly. "It was hard to talk about some of the incidents in my childhood, even though I knew it would help put him away."

There was no reason to ask who he was, as Dave knew who his son was referring to, so he just nodded.

"It made some of my emotional scars start to heal, even if it was embarrassing at the same time to talk about my childhood in front of a bunch of strangers," Spencer revealed.

"See, talking about it does help," Dave said calmly, "and I certainly don't ever intend to reveal what you tell me to anybody else."

"I know, I trust you just like I trust the others on the team to never reveal what we learn about each other, but even though the team knows a lot about me they don't know everything. They don't know very much about my childhood, except that it wasn't very happy, but then most of us who work at the BAU didn't exactly have idyllic childhood, except perhaps for JJ and maybe you."

"I had a relatively happy childhood," Dave agreed.

"And I know that JJ did, but as for the others no. I suppose it's what makes us so good at what we do. Makes us able to listen to people describe what they did to others without showing a visible reaction. Of course, it still affects all of us and we have to have some way to relieve what we hear if we are to continue to do what we do and not burn out," Spencer said.

"And how do you deal with what you see and hear, because you're right we have one of the toughest jobs around," Dave asked. "I know Morgan buys houses that need a lot of work before he resells them and that's his way of dealing with the horrors he sees and hears. Good physical labor."

"That method would never work for me since I'm not good at that kind of thing," Spencer said smiling a little.

"Of course, it wouldn't, because everybody is different with different abilities, interest and talents," Dave said. "Me I go hunting with Mudgie or up to my cabin to just relax and not think about work for a few days. It's my way to decompress, to put all the horrors I see on the job into a corner of my mind in a box."

"All of us compartmentalize to a certain extent," Spencer said smiling. "It certainly helps us do our jobs if we don't have all that in our minds constantly. I suppose it's good that all of us don't have everything in our minds that we see or hear on the job, as we would go slowly insane, or at least it would change us for the worst, so it's a good thing all of us have the ability to put those memories into a box and lock them away."

The two men continued to talk quietly sipping the wine that Dave had opened.

"Remember what we discussed before we finally put my father in prison?" Spencer asked finally.

"About you changing your name?" Dave said immediately.

"Yes and I decided to go with JJ's suggestion and use Reid-Rossi," Spencer said. "You've been more a father to me in the last few months then the one I grew up with ever was. I know I'm an adult but still, I have appreciated your support and the fact that you let me live my own life and make my own decisions. William Reid wanted me to go into a career as a lawyer and I knew that from the time I was very small. While I did go into law enforcement, unknowingly following my father's footsteps, it was still my decision and I know you would have supported me if I had chosen something different."

"Of course, I would have, that's what any good parent would have done," Dave agreed immediately.

"Which tells you that William Reid wasn't a good parent not even in the very beginning," said Spencer, grimly.

"I know," Dave said, "and believe me, I'm furious with him, even though he's behind bars and will be there for the rest of his life whether that's 10, 20 or 30 years. I'm hoping he lives a very long time and that one of the other prisoners in the prison he's going to will rape him again and again, since even prisoners have to get their sex someway. That might be small and petty of me, but I feel if anybody deserves it it's him."

"Even if it doesn't, he won't be leaving, except in a wooden box," Spencer said. "I can understand why you wish that fate on him, although I know you usually wouldn't wish that kind of thing on anyone, no matter what they had done, but still, in this case, I think that it's well deserved if that does happen. I can't help agreeing with you in this case, because if I had to been treated as his son my feelings would be different entirely."

Dave simply smiled and raised his wineglass in salute causing Spencer to smile a little.

"I'm happy that you've decided to change your last name to mine, even if you also keep the Reid," Dave said.

"I knew you would be. I certainly would be if I discovered I had a son that had been kidnapped shortly after his birth, but that I had believed was dead," Spencer said.

The two men were silent for awhile, as they sipped their wine.

"Also, I've decided not just to use Peter as my middle name but Peter Daniel, even though I know it will give me three names plus my surname. It seems only fair since you and your wife named me Peter Daniel Rossi, which is the name I should've grown up under. If I really didn't want to keep my first name, since that's what I've always gone by, that was given to me by the woman I thought was my mother then it would be simpler, even if I realize I'm called Reid more than half the time," Spencer said.

"I don't think that's going to change, because I think it's a good idea to keep the fact that you change your name to mine a secret unless it's necessary to reveal it. Yes, a lot of people are aware that you're my son due to the media, but still there's no reason to let it be widely known unless that's what you want," Dave agreed.

"I agree with your reasoning and I was thinking along the same lines. I think that other FBI agents would just resent me more if they really knew I was your son. Alright, they probably read the paper since most people do, but still, they could start making accusations about me getting special treatment. They could try to claim that you're the one that pulled me directly into the BAU, even though we didn't meet until three years ago. I know it was Gideon that did that, but some of those FBI agents wouldn't bother to check their facts and I just think it's trouble that we don't need. A lot of agents already resent the hell out of me, because I never served in another department in the FBI before being placed in the BAU and I just don't want to make that worse if they learn that I changed my name to yours as if I'm expecting special treatment," Spencer explained.

"Yes, I knew that a lot of other agents resented you," Dave revealed. "Aaron and I kept in contact over the years and he told me about everybody on the team, though he didn't go into detail. Of course, at the time I didn't know you were my son."

"I'm glad you didn't, because I wouldn't have wanted you to do anything about it, because that would be seen as me receiving special treatment and I'm sure that would have been your first inclination," Spencer said.

"You're right about that, but then I would have realized that you're a grown man and able to handle your own problems," Dave said. "I wouldn't have interfered once I realized that, because it just would have caused more problems in the long run. You don't normally fit the type of man that joins the FBI as most of them are alpha males or females, though I'm not saying we don't have a few like you."

"I'm well aware of it," Spencer smiled. "It doesn't matter what others think of me, because they ought too know that I wouldn't still be part of the BAU if I didn't pull my weight with the team. There is no way that Hotch would've kept me on if I didn't do my job."

Dave nodded at that, because it was very true and Spencer was a very integral part of the unit.

"Here's to getting to know each other much better and be introducing you to your brother," Dave said raising his wine glass Spencer following suit.

"I'm looking forward to meeting James," Spencer said.

"He'll be absolutely thrilled to meet you," Dave said smiling.

"So you've said," Spencer said also smiling a little.

The two men continued to sip their wine, getting to know each other much better as their feelings about William Reid's fate were pushed aside for the moment.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~


	4. Chapter 4

Part 4

"It's really nice to meet you," James said shaking Spencer's hand.

"It's nice to meet you too," Spencer said smiling. "I can guess you were rather shocked when Dave told you that you had a brother."

"That's probably the understatement of the decade," James laughed easily.

James David Rossi looked much more like his father then Spencer did with his black hair and deep brown eyes and also shared his father's more muscular frame. It was obvious that the two of them were father and son while Spencer knew he looked more like his real mother who was now deceased. Since he had seen photos of her he had to agree that he did look much more like Dave's late wife, though really, he was more a combination of the two.

"Dad promised to tell me the whole story once I got here," James added. "Said he didn't want to talk about it over the phone."

"So I did," Dave agreed, as he handed his oldest son a drink. "Why don't you sit down, and Spencer and I will tell you the whole story."

James sat down in one of the comfortable chairs that were in the living room while Spencer did the same on the couch.

"So?" James asked once everyone was comfortable.

Dave and Spencer took turns telling James all about what it happened in recent months.

"So you're saying that all these years you believed that my brother was dead," James said, as calmly as possible, though it was clear he was furious, "but you discovered that you were father and son, because of the unique birthmark and that's what started you investigating the man that kidnapped my brother in the first place William Reid. You found enough evidence that he's in prison now and will be there for the rest of his life."

"More or less," Spencer said.

"I can understand why you didn't contact me before now because you knew what my reaction would be," James told his father who nodded.

"That was only one reason," Dave told his son calmly, but with an understanding look. "Spencer needed to get used to the fact that he had a father, a real father not the pale approximation of one that he had with William Reid, not to mention a brother. It was a big shock to both of us, but mostly to him, because his childhood, well, let's just say it wasn't very happy and leave it at that. It's not really my place to tell you all about it, as that will be up to Spencer if he wants to."

"Alright, I can understand that," James said finally. "I was certainly shocked to find out I had a brother in the first place when I believed I was an only child."

"I'm really sorry that Caroline and I never told you that you did have a brother because it was painful for us to talk about because we believed he had died," Dave explained and James nodded. "Really, we didn't see the point of mentioning it since our marriage broke up soon afterwards. It was already on the rocks, because I was gone so much for work and because I tended to forget anniversaries and things. I just got so absorbed in building in the BAU that I forgot that marriage was work. Who knows if we would've been able to save it if we had known that Peter survived, even if he's Spencer's now."

"So you're not going to change your name to the one you were born with then," James said looking at his brother.

"Not my first name because the woman I believed was my mother gave it to me and she was in no way involved with my supposed father's stupid decision. She never would have allowed him to get away with it if she had known. She really believed I was her son and treated me well, so I'm going to keep the name she gave me. I'm also going to keep the Reid because that's my professional name and it would be rather difficult to change it at this point unless I left the FBI and made a fresh start elsewhere. However, I have agreed to change my middle name, because it's William for one thing and this is a way of honoring the man that really is my father. I'm just going to have to have two middle names, as that's what I decided on, so I'll be Spencer Peter Daniel Reid. Other people have two middle names, even if it's rather unusual, so that's the route I'm going to take. As for my last name I agreed that I'd keep the Reid, but I'd use one of those double-barrelled surnames, so I'll be Reid Rossi."

"It was a compromise that I was happy to accept, because the situation is not one that comes up to often. It's rather unusual for a mother or father to find out that the child they thought was dead is actually alive, but it has been known to happen," Dave added.

"Alright, I can see that and I think it's a good compromise," James decided, as he sipped his drink.

"Yes, it's a very reasonable compromise," Spencer said. "I've finally absorbed the news that William Reid wasn't my real father at all and I truly wish I had grown up with you and your parents, but since we can't change the past there's no point of dwelling on it either."

"Well, welcome to the family," James said smiling. "Hopefully, we'll get to know each other better soon, although I'm still furious that we didn't grow up together, because we definitely should have."

"Yes, we should have," Spencer agreed. "I always knew William Reid was a selfish, uncaring bastard, but I never believed that he had committed any kind of major crime, as there are a lot of people like him in the world and most of them don't commit such a major crime in their lives. I mean he didn't commit a crime like littering, but a major federal offense, which was very stupid of him, because there were other ways to have children, even back in the 80s and early 90s. I mean he could've had one illegitimately for example, although if anybody had found out about it likely would have ruined his career or at least damaged it in the early 80s, but then again maybe not since it happened all the time."

"Why wouldn't have ruined his career?" James asked puzzled.

"Because he was an attorney and attorney's back then were supposed to be upstanding citizens, unless you were one of those sleazy ones that got some criminal off with just a slap on the wrist. We were just coming off the 70s when I was born, and people's values, morals and ethics were different back then, but by the middle 80s that had changed."

"Yes, I see what you mean," James agreed.

"Still, he could've divorced his wife like he did in the early 90s and then perhaps had another child after getting married again, instead of kidnapping a child from another family," Spencer said.

"So why do you believe he did so? Switched the babies in the nursery?" asked James.

"Well, I don't know for sure, but I suspect he probably panicked, as he knew his own son was going to die in a day or two, because of a bad heart, which wasn't fixable back at the time I was born. I don't think he thought about his actions at all when he did it or if he did well I don't think he thought through the consequences. Of course, it's quite possible, that he believed that it was nearly the perfect crime, as who was to know? Neonatal units weren't watched closely back in the 80s as they are today, because the kind of crime that happened to me wasn't as common. It still happened, just not as much as it does today, if you don't have the nursery watched constantly. I mean really what were the odds that I would really run into the man that had fathered me?"

"Yes, I see what you mean," James agreed. "Odds must be astronomical, considering that the world is a big place and you really don't look that much like dad at all."

"No, he looks more like his mother, but really, he's the perfect combination of both of us," Dave said speaking for the first time in a long while. "If he looked just like Caroline with a few differences of course, then I would've recognized him right away, but while I had noticed some similarities, not only in looks to me and Caroline, but also in certain habits and gestures, the kind of thing that is genetic, so I just put all that down to coincidence. Then I saw the birthmark and that was what clinched it in my mind, made me sure that he was my son."

"Which is why we had the blood test done at the first possible opportunity," Spencer said smiling.

"Which just confirmed what both of us already knew," Dave added smiling in return.

"I've seen pictures of my late mother and I have to agree that I look more like her then I do Dave," Spencer said. "Still, that doesn't mean that he's not my father, as genetics are really a rather tricky area of science and you never know who a child is going to end up looking like. Some children come out looking so much like one parent you would believe that they were twins, except for the age difference, while others hardly look like either of their parents at all, but that doesn't mean they don't share the same DNA."

"And some turn out to be a perfect blend of both parents, which is what happened in Spencer's case," Dave added.

"Alright, I understand that," James said finally.

The three continued to talk for sometime until James stomach growled hungrily.

"Well, someone's hungry," Dave smiled looking at his watch, "and no wonder, it's way past dinnertime as we've been talking for hours. I think we'll just order take out for tonight as I'm too tired to cook. So what kind of take out do you boys want?"

"It doesn't really matter to me as I'm not too picky," Spencer said who was hungry as well.

"What about French?" James asked. "I really love French food, although I have to exercise, even more whenever I eat it, because it's really fattening."

"I know just the place," Dave said, as he took out his cell phone. "I'll just order a variety and we can always put what's not eaten in the fridge."

Dave called the French place that was programmed into his contact list and ordered a whole bunch of different things.

"It'll be here in half an hour," Dave finally said after he had hung up.

"Good because I'm starving," James said grinning.

"I'm hungry too," Spencer admitted.

"And so am I, but then we have every right to be, as it's after 8:30 and I had no idea we'd been talking for so long," Dave said.

"Yeah, I should be getting home after we eat, as both Dave and I have to work tomorrow," said Spencer.

The three of them continued talking until the doorbell rang, which meant the food was here so Dave went to answer it. He was back less then five minutes later with several bags of food that he took into the kitchen.

"Dinner is served boys come and get it," Dave said.

James obeyed with alacrity for he was starving with Spencer following behind at a slower pace.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~

Several months later

"It's really good to see you James," Spencer greeted his older brother, as the two of them met at the front entrance of the restaurant they had chosen. Both young men liked to be on time instead of early or late like some people so in that way they were the same.

"Good to see you to, little brother," James grinned causing Spencer to simply roll his eyes in pretended exasperation. Secretly though, he really enjoyed being the little brother to someone as it gave him a warm fuzzy feeling. He would never allow anyone to ever know it though, not even his older brother or his father. As for his fake father, William Reid, had been here, he would have thought that two grown men were acting childishly and that they should be serious all the time. Spencer had often wondered over the last few months what his father did for fun as no one could be serious all the time, even if they pretended to, which was something he had learned after he had discovered that his father was not William Reid, but David Rossi instead. Spencer strongly suspected that the façade William Reid had always put up, an uncaring, serious façade, that had no time for joy, laughter or fun wasn't the way he was away from the son he hated so much. William Reid, who had been something of an enigma to Spencer as a child, was still, just as much of one nearly 30 years later, not that he really mattered anymore, since he would be in prison for the rest of his life.

"We need to go in before we miss our reservation," Spencer said.

"Are you always so serious?" James asked, as soon as the waiter had escorted the two of them to a semiprivate table.

"It's the way I grew up," Spencer shrugged. "I learned to conceal my emotions at a very early age I'm afraid. The man, I thought was my father, had a nasty habit of jumping on me any time I showed the least emotion, especially if it was negative. Like I came home in tears once because the bullies had beaten me up and given me a black eye and sore muscles. I think he'd rather me have been an android rather then a human being from the way he acted. I learned to conceal my emotions at a very early age and it just became habit over time. Now I doubt I could change even if I wanted to."

"People like that shouldn't have procreated," James said.

"Well, technically, his son died which is why he kidnapped me in the first place," Spencer pointed out logically. "He knew that it was unlikely that the woman I thought was my mother would be able to have anymore children due to the schizophrenia. She couldn't stay on her medications when she got pregnant with her son due to the possibility of major defects in the fetus. Of course, now, they're better medications and there were back when I was born, as it's been nearly 30 years after all."

"It's sad that her son died, although I'm almost glad he did considering what the father's like," James said. "There's no doubt that it's a tragedy, but at least that little boy didn't have to grow up with such a monster for a father. I mean this William Reid denied me from getting to know my brother and caused my parents to mourn for a long time. Dad has admitted your supposed death is at least partially responsible for the break up of our parents marriage, even it's not the whole cause. It's a good thing he's in prison or I'd likely go after him."

"Believe me, I agree with you about the fact that I'm happy he's in prison, but if you would've gone after him and say beat him up that would only gotten you in trouble and your father and I might not be able to get out of it. Besides, for all we know he might been a different person if his son had lived. It might have been the death of his son that caused him to be like he was for all we know."

James nodded that because his brother was very right.

"That's not to say, I won't hate him until my dying day, it just means that he's out of our lives permanently, so there's no point of dwelling on the fact that we lost the opportunity to grow up together due to one man. People like William Reid don't do very well in prison James, especially a federal one where the worst of the worst are housed. I won't be surprised at all if somebody uses him as kind of a toy because he's a handsome man, even if he's pretty old or he could tick someone off and get himself a shiv in the gut. Alright, I admit, that he didn't know that he was kidnapping the baby of the federal officer as dad was a member of the FBI back when both of us were born. The charges would've been less serious if he had picked another child, although he still likely would've ended up in prison for the rest of his life, just not a federal one. I always knew that William Reid never cared about me and expected me to be perfect, but since no child is, I failed his unrealistic expectations. I suspect that he wanted me to be exactly like he was as a child and the likelihood of that was..."

"Astronomical," James finished.

"I wouldn't go that far, because sometimes children do turn out more like one parent than the other, but that's mostly because one parent forges a close bond with their child, which William Reid never did with me for obvious reasons. For all we know he could have suffered a psychotic break at the death of his son, which happens all the time for various reasons. Tragedy is often a trigger for such things as a psychotic break. It's certainly possible if his real son had lived he would've been more like William Reid wanted, but there's no guarantees of course."

"You sound like you're excusing his actions," James sputtered.

"I'm not," Spencer promised. "I'm just saying that there're could be multiple reasons why he was like he was that's all. It could be he was a genuinely uncaring individual before his son died or something could've caused it."

"I suppose," James conceded. "I don't really know much about psychology or the human mind."

"Me and Dave and the rest of the team do because that's basically what we do," Spencer said. "Trying to understand why humans do what they do and a lot of times it's because some tragedy happen that causes that psychotic break I mentioned. Understanding how they think, is how we catch them James and it our father that started the whole unit, that I am proud to work for. At one point people said profiling serial killers couldn't be done and yet our father figured out a way to do it. I've always admired David Rossi and at that point in time I didn't know that he was actually my father, as I was just a child at the time. I was always interested in going into law enforcement and Jason Gideon convinced me to join the FBI. I won't say it was easy, since a great many agents resent me, but considering it led me to the fact that William Reid isn't really my father and I have a family that supports me now I would say it's worth it."

"Mom used to always say that if it was too easy it wouldn't be worth it in the end," James said.

"Well, mom was right," Spencer smiled. "The woman I believed was my mother said something similar."

"Perhaps all good moms say something similar," James said also smiling.

"It's certainly possible," Spencer conceded. "I never had a chance to meet my real mother, but the one I had was good enough for me. It was never my mother, the one I grew up with, that was the problem. Despite the schizophrenia I knew she loved me. She proved it again and again before the disease really took her away from me emotionally. It's those happy childhood memories that sustained me after William Reid left and even before that happened."

"So why don't you tell me some of them," James suggested as he took a drink of his beer.

"Well," Spencer said, as he brought the few happy childhood memories he had to the front of his mind. "It was her that taught me how to play chess, though I was never able to beat Gideon as he was a truly unconventional thinker. I was around five when that happened, as mom, knew how intelligent I was, even if William Reid didn't want to acknowledge it. It wasn't long before I was beating her as I had all the moves memorized and understood the game better than she did."

Spencer told his brother about some of his few happy childhood memories about helping his mother bake cookies in the kitchen, how his mother had also taught him how to play poker at a young age. "I was so good at poker that when it was legal for me to gamble at the casinos in Vegas I won a bundle and I was told to never come back, because the management of such places was sure I was cheating, even though I wasn't. Since I had made what I wanted, which would keep my mother in Bennington Sanitarium until I could get myself a job I was happy to never gamble again."

"So did you tell your mother about the fact that you aren't really her son?" James asked Spencer shook his head.

"It would devastate her and although the medicine she takes helps with the schizophrenia it might send her into another episode. Such episodes tend to be very violent, where she doesn't remember the doctors and nurses or where she is. Sometimes, she doesn't even remember me, her own son. It's just better that she continues to believe that I am her son. I will take that secret to my grave."

"I understand," James said and he did. He didn't really know much about schizophrenia other then it caused delusions and sometimes hallucinations, but apparently that could be violent episodes as well. He was sure his little brother knew all about it considering he had lived with a woman who had a severe case of it. James had nothing but admiration for his younger brother, who he hadn't even known existed until a few months previously. To be able to handle a woman with violent hallucinations, go to school get good grades and go to college at a really young age with no help whatsoever absolutely amazed James as he knew he wouldn't even have done half is well at the same age. He had been intelligent certainly, more intelligent than most other boys his age, but he certainly wouldn't have known what to do if something had happened to one of his parents and the other one had just walked away. James was amazed that Spencer had not only managed to survive but thrive.

James would never understand human nature the way his father and apparently younger brother did. How can a man abandon his family just because his wife was sick. How could a man treat his son so shabbily, especially considering that it turned out Spencer had been kidnapped to replace a man's son that was going to die anyway. James would never understand why a man would kidnap another man's son to replace one he was about to lose, only to treat him like he was an object with no feelings. He supposed that's why he had never become a cop or a FBI agent like his father and little brother.

"I would love to tell her about you and Dave," Spencer said, "but it's just not wise. She doesn't even know that William Reid is in prison and as far as I know she doesn't know about the trial either. Dr. Norman tries his best to shield her, though my mother wouldn't appreciate it if she was aware of it. If she wasn't so sick in her mind I wouldn't mind her finding out."

James nodded and changed the subject.

"So any girlfriends in your life that I need to know about?" James asked.

Spencer tried his best not to blush, but he couldn't help when it overtook his face.

"Oh so there is someone," James said teasing his brother. "So are you dating or does she know of your feelings."

"She isn't aware of my feelings," Spencer answered, still blushing.

"So who is she?" James asked.

"Why do you ask?" Spencer countered trying desperately to change the subject, as he did want to discuss the woman he had fallen in love with. He would never let her know, as he just knew that she would not return his feelings.

"Because I'm your big brother," James answered with a grin. "Big brothers are supposed to interfere in their younger siblings lives. It's part of the siblings code."

Spencer wanted to protest there was no such code, but who knew, there might be. Besides, he knew very well that a lot of times big brothers did interfere in their younger siblings lives and so did big sisters for that matter. He had just never expected it to happen to him, because he hadn't had a brother until just a few short months ago or at least he hadn't known he had.

"So are you going to tell me her name?" James wheedled and Spencer shook his head stubbornly. "Come on, tell me her name," James begged. "Is it someone that lives in your neighborhood? Your apartment building? Or is it someone at work?"

Spencer kept shaking his head stubbornly refusing to divulge who he had fallen in love with several years ago.

"You know I'll just go to dad if you don't tell me, as I'm sure he knows who you're in love with and if that's the case, why he hasn't interfered is beyond me."

"Because he knows how to stay out of people's private lives, even someone's where he found out was his son," Spencer suggested in a sharp tone. "It's possible that he knows, because the team tends to profile each other, even if we're not supposed to, but they won't interfere and try to play matchmaker. Profiling each other is just one of the risks of the job."

"Hey! There's no need to get angry, Spence," James said and didn't notice when Spencer drew in a sharp breath.

The only person that ever called him Spence was JJ the woman he had loved for several years already or at least that was when he realized he loved her. It had been right before Dave had come back to the BAU, but since he knew that there was no way JJ would return his feelings he had said nothing and never would. He was sure that JJ would find someone much better then himself to marry eventually if she wanted to.

Spencer didn't think for a second that the love of his life may also have feelings for him, because he still considered himself unworthy of being loved in that way, which was all due to his childhood upbringing by one William Reid who was now in prison or life.

Spencer might know that he was loved by his brother and father and he appreciated it, but one couldn't shake their childhood so easily. His fake father had often harped on the fact how Spencer would never marry when he was grown, because he was too strange, to intelligent and as plain is a block of wood. William Reid had simply loved pointing out every single fault Spencer possessed and quite a few that he didn't. It had never occurred to Spencer that a lot of those faults had simply been ones that any child had, but outgrew with time and maturity. For someone who saw people so clearly, it was amazing that Spencer couldn't see that most of the things William Reid had harped on were not true now and never had been. Convincing him that one William Reid had often told him was not true at all would be a difficult if not impossible task, since Spencer had grown up believing the things his fake father had said, just like any child would.

That none of these things were true had not occurred to Spencer, because as a child he had loved his father, even if now he hated his guts and hoped that William Reid got what was coming to him.

James dropped the subject for now, but he would be talking to his dad to see if he knew who his brother was in love with. He was sure that his father did know or at least suspected, but whether or not he would tell his oldest son was a question. James knew his father would likely be hurting for his youngest son, because he had experienced his marriage breaking up after all. He was sure that his father had been rejected by at least one girl before he had met his mother Caroline, which Spencer likely feared most of all.

What Spencer really needed was years of seeing a psychologist to fully understand his own self and realize that his childhood had affected him deeply, but he knew his brother well enough to know that Spencer would never agree to it, so James wasn't even going to bother to suggest it. His brother could be extremely stubborn and would just dig in his heels.

The two brothers parted amiably after lunch, but James knew that if Spencer had any idea what he planned to do, his brother would stop him, so he made sure he acted normally and asked nothing farther about the girl that James knew his brother loved.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~


	5. Chapter 5

Part 5

James visited his father when he was sure that his brother was busy elsewhere.

"So what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" Dave asked. "I've seen more of you in the last few months than I have in a long time."

"I'm sorry about that, we all have busy lives," James said, as he took a sip of wine his father had poured put him. "I'll try to be around more."

"I wonder why," Dave said amused.

"What can I say I never knew I had a baby brother, so I'm hanging around more to get to know him better," James shrugged.

"So what are your conclusions?" Dave asked.

"Well, he's really super intelligent," James said, as he thought about what he had learned.

"Yes, he is," Dave agreed, stirring the tomato sauce.

"His childhood wasn't very easy," James added after taking another sip of wine.

"And how did that make you feel," Dave asked.

"Like I wanted to go beat up William Reid with my bare hands," James said candidly.

"I felt the same," Dave told his son who nodded. "Both of us and Caroline lost almost 30 years with Spencer due to his actions. Still, prison is no easy place James, especially a federal one. I put the word out that he kidnapped a baby from his family and then treated him like crap. You might not think that people who are in prison care about that kind of thing, but believe me a lot of them do. They might be bad people, but there're some things that a lot of them will never do. This isn't true of all criminal offenders of course, because some do kidnap babies for ransom or because their pedophiles or simply because they are sick in their mind and have fun torturing a baby or a young child before they kill them. The world is full of very sick people James, but a lot of them have certain standards of what they will or will not do, so I expect William Reid's time in prison will be even tougher than it would have been otherwise."

"That will have to be enough," James said.

"It will be, because these people will make his life miserable for very long time hopefully 20 or 30 years, which is the same amount of time that William Reid took your brother and my son from us and from Caroline. This way our hands are clean and he gets what he deserves, which might have happened anyway, even without me saying anything, as at least one of them is bound to have seen the media coverage of the trial and likely more."

"This isn't something you would normally do," James said knowing that his father wouldn't normally even suggest doing what he had already done. No, usually, he was very law-abiding, but he supposed that this could be considered a special case.

"No, you know, I wouldn't have," Dave said and James nodded. "In this case though, I feel it is justified. If William Reid had treated Spencer well while he was growing up, I would still have been happy to see him in prison, but I probably wouldn't have asked the guards I know over there to spill why he was there to the inmates, appropriately edited of course. I know very well what often happens to children that are kidnapped, but William Reid just wanted a child that would carry on the family name to replace his son that was dying due to an uncorrectable medical issue, not because he desperately wanted a child to love. I'm sure Diana Reid would've been devastated when she learned her son had died and might not have been willing to try again, but who knows she might very well have been willing despite the schizophrenia. According to Spencer her schizophrenia wasn't as bad back when he was born and didn't get so for several years. She might've been willing to try to have another child, but William Reid jumped the gun."

"Spencer thinks it's possible he had a psychic break, maybe when he heard that his son was not going to live past a few days," James said.

"That's certainly possible," Dave conceded. "We'll never be sure if that's the case or not, but that still doesn't excuse his actions. It was pure chance that I happened to notice that birthmark that is on his hip, the same one that Peter had when he was born. Normally, we don't share a room on cases, but Morgan was visiting his family in Chicago and Spencer usually shares with him."

"So it was pure chance that you were sharing a room," James said and Dave nodded.

"Yes, pure chance as you said," Dave agreed. "I had noticed similarities of course, but I put it down as coincidence, until after I saw that birthmark. It was the birthmark, which is rather unique, that confirmed that my son was not dead after all. Of course, Spencer and I had to have a blood test in order to confirm it, because he doesn't look as much like me or Caroline as you do. He does look a great deal like his mother, but a lot of people share similar features so that's not a sure indication."

Dave placed the spaghetti he had been cooking on the table on a huge platter.

"Help yourself," Dave suggested smiling at his oldest son.

"I just love your spaghetti, dad," James said smiling in return.

"It's one of my favorites too and it's not that hard to prepare," Dave said as he helped himself to a large portion of the spaghetti, and took several pieces of garlic bread that was on another large plate.

Father and son ate in silence for awhile and James tried to come up with a way to bring up the subject he wanted to.

"What's on your mind, James?" Dave asked finally seeing that his son was agitated and had been since he had surprised him with his visit.

James stared at him in surprise and shook his head. He had stopped being amazed years ago that his father could practically read his mind, or at least it seemed like that, but really his dad was just profiling him like he did when he was working a case. He knew very well and that his father tried not to do so, but it wasn't something you could just shut off when you didn't need it. James also knew that his father knew him very well, which was at least partially why he could read his son so easily.

"It's nothing bad," James said finally giving in. "Spencer and I had lunch a few days ago and I started teasing him on whether or not he had a girlfriend."

"Oh, I know where this is going," Dave said immediately. "He blushed and told you was none of your business, didn't he?"

"Yes, he did," James admitted. "I could tell he was rather irritated at me."

"He's not used to having people that truly love him or used to having a brother to tease him about his love life," Dave told James who nodded, as he had figured that out for himself. "While the team loves him in their own ways it's a totally different type of relationship from love of a family. We're not really supposed to profile each other, but it's not something you can shut off as you know. He's really not used to people asking about his love life and he's so self-contained that Morgan assumed for a long time that he was a complete innocent in that area. Morgan used to tease him about finding himself a girlfriend, but Spencer never responded. This is not to say he hasn't had several girlfriends over the years, just that he's very private about that part of his life. As to your question yes, I know who he's interested in, but I'm not going to tell you who. For one thing Spencer doesn't know I'm aware that he's in love with someone and if he found out I told you that may damage our relationship and considering I just found him I won't risk that. You really don't want Spencer mad at you trust me on that, James, as he's been betrayed so many times in the past that he doesn't trust easily, and I'm not going risk damaging the trust I have built over the last few years. He's finally beginning to open up more to me then he has to anybody as far as I know and I won't risk damaging that."

James sighed in disappointment, but he knew he would never be able to convince his father otherwise as he wouldn't risk his relationship with his newly found son. James couldn't really blame his father for that, because his dad had believed that his youngest son was dead for nearly 30 years after all, which would've been painful for any parent or at least ones that loved their children. Both of them had lost out on nearly 3 decades with Peter who was Spencer now, all because of one man, who was now in prison and would be for what remained of his life.

Both men at the kitchen table didn't believe that William Reid just being in prison was enough, which was why Dave had done what he had. All his dad had really done was tell the guards about what William Reid had done and asked them to let it be known if it wasn't already due to the media coverage of the trial, as he knew that the inmates of whatever prison the Senior Reid had been sent to would make that particular prisoner's life ever more miserable.

James had seen the news, but hadn't made the connection or he would've appeared on his dad's doorstep as soon as he had. He had thought it was a tragedy distantly, but at the time it hadn't really affected him otherwise.

"I know you're disappointed, I would be too if I didn't already know who he's in love with," Dave said.

"Do you think you'll ever say anything to her?" James asked plaintively.

"I would say it depends," Dave said finally seeming to be thinking of how to answer.

"On?" James asked curiously.

"On whether or not he ever gets up enough confidence to ask her out, as he's sure that she will never return his feelings. William Reid did quite a number on his self-confidence I'm afraid and was always disparaging him for one reason or another. That kind of thing tends to stay with any child and Spencer's eidetic memory only made things worse in his case. I don't know exactly what was said when Spencer was a child, as he never gave me any details probably on purpose, but I can guess very well," Dave said.

"So you think it's lack of self-confidence in his desirability or at least in this woman he's interested in returning his feelings."

"Yes, I'm afraid so, it's a very common issue when your parents are not exactly the kind that support you like they should. Spencer might very well have turned out differently if Diana Reid hadn't been so sick, as she would've helped boost her son's confidence while he was still a child instead of leaving him hanging in the wind. There are so many things that we get from our parents, not just our looks, but a lot of our habits and many other traits. That's not the whole issue of course, it's also environment, role models and so on," Dave said. "Spencer didn't have any of that and he was severely picked on because his father refused to send him to a special school for those that are more intelligent or at least hire tutors, which is something that Caroline and I would have done if he had grown up with us like he should have. I think, he turned out rather well considering."

"So what do you think was said?" James asked.

Dave knew very well what James was asking and so he replied, "I think he made disparaging comments about how Spencer would never get married, because he was too plain, to intelligent and how nobody would ever want somebody like him because he wasn't normal, well, you get the point. I wouldn't be surprised if William Reid deliberately broke down Spencer's self-confidence, by making nasty comments that were in no way true and probably exaggerating Spencer's faults and adding others on, ones that he, himself was guilty of. Spencer would've been fairly innocent back then, even living with such a man, so I can see my son believing everything he spewed, because almost anyone that age would believe their parental figure. Back then, Spencer wouldn't have known that there are other people just as intelligent in the world that get married and have families of their own. He was just a child after all."

"No matter how intelligent he still would've believed William Reid's words," James realized.

"Oh, Spencer is intelligent enough that he probably stopped believing his father before he left, but by then the damage would have been done," Dave agreed looking sad and furious at the same time. "I'm sure that Spencer thinks that he's to plain, too intelligent and a lot of other negative descriptive phrases about himself that are in no way true that are stopping him from asking out the woman he's in love with. I'm sure he believes that this woman will not return his interest, so he doesn't bother to try to ask her out, as he likely fears rejection above all. He doesn't see that she loves him too, because he's totally oblivious or thinks he's misreading the signals she's giving off, I'm not sure which."

"So this woman loves him too," James said even more intrigued.

"Yes, it might be nothing more than infatuation, but I don't believe so, as they've known each other for years, far longer then the two of us have," Dave said.

"Isn't there someway we can get them together?" James asked.

"I don't know," Dave said. "I'll have to think about it. If we do anything we're going to have to be very careful, because Spencer at least will object to us interfering."

"You don't think this lady will," James said.

"She might at first until I explain my reasoning, as she's also logical and intelligent," Dave said.

"If you know her that well, you and Spencer probably work with her, as you don't exactly have a lot of time to meet anyone, not even someone you're youngest son is in love with," James said shrewdly. "At least you shouldn't know her so well if you only met her a handful of times over the last few months."

Dave said nothing knowing his son was right, but refusing to respond as he'd given too much away as it was.

"Leave it alone, James," Dave said, in a tone that James just had to obey, as it was a tone he recognized from his childhood when his father was deadly serious. "I'll see what I can do to convince her to approach Spencer, but I won't do more than that. I'll let you know what happens either way."

"Alright, fine," James said dropping the subject.

Father and son chatted a little more drinking their wine and James helped clean up the kitchen before taking his leave.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~

Several months later JJ finally made her move. Dave had managed to have a private conversation with her and in that conversation he had told her that Spencer would never make a move on his own and if she was interested in his son like he believed she would have to make the first move.

JJ had asked day point blank why he was trying to matchmake and Dave had answered that he wanted to see his son happy. He had felt so, even before he had known that Spencer was his son, but didn't feel that he had the right to interfere.

JJ had understood his reasoning immediately, because before Dave had just been part of the team and like an honorary uncle to all of them, but now that he knew Spencer was his son he felt interfering was the only way to ensure his son's future happiness, hers to of course.

JJ was well aware that Spencer would never ask her out on his own and not because he didn't like her. She wasn't entirely sure what Spence's problem was, but suspected it had something to do with William Reid who everyone had thought was his father until very recently. Really, JJ was incredibly perceptive and observant, so suspected that the man they had believed was Spence's father had made uncalled for comments all throughout his childhood that had simply stuck with Spencer all his life, mostly due to his eidetic memory. Despite having a happy childhood JJ was not unaware that many children did not have such childhoods, as the team saw it a lot on a regular basis when they were on cases and it always made her sad.

Dave had left it up to her to approach Spencer. He had said he could do no more, because he didn't want to risk his budding relationship with his son who he had believed was dead for nearly 3 decades.

JJ had agreed knowing that if Spencer or Peter Daniel, since that was his original name, felt betrayed then his relationship with his father would go in the toilet, which was the last thing that JJ wanted to happen, since Spencer had been so much happier lately.

"So Spencer what about some dinner," JJ suggested at the end of the work day.

"I'll just get something on my way home," Spencer said, as he gathered up his belongings and dumped them into his messenger bag. Spencer didn't bother to look at her, as he gathered his things, mostly because he knew spending time with her was a bad idea as he was bound to reveal how he felt and he couldn't take her rejection no matter how kindly given as it would destroy him. When they were on cases he had something else to concentrate on, so being around JJ didn't bother him as much, except of course, at night.

"Come on, it's just dinner, Spence," JJ said. "How often do we have time for a nice, quiet meal without anybody else around? We don't hardly ever spend time together anymore outside of work, not like we used to."

JJ hated having to guilt Spencer into having dinner with her, but she knew he would dig in his heels if she did not. She knew that Spencer at least liked her, even if Dave believed that his son had very deep feelings for her. She didn't know if Dave was right or not, but the older profiler was good enough at his job that he probably was and it gave her hope. She and Spencer had used to be really close and spend a great deal of time together outside of work. Unfortunately, that had stopped a couple of years ago, mostly because they were so busy, but she suspected it was at least partially because Spencer was probably afraid of revealing his feelings for her and so avoided her whenever possible, without making it obvious that he was doing so.

He was likely afraid she wouldn't return his feelings and so had decided to never ask her out.

She suspected he feared rejection above all else, which was reasonable considering he had likely been rejected before this and not everyone was polite when rejecting someone they didn't like or at least had no feelings for. Both men and women could be very rude when rejecting someone that they didn't want to go out with, as a large percentage of them didn't bother to think about others feelings. For someone with Spencer's low self-confidence at least when it came to asking out a woman he liked a rude or nasty rejection would do considerable damage to what little he had. If Spencer had dated before JJ doubted very much that those relationships had lasted more than a few weeks. Most women wanted a man around more than Spencer would be due to his job and if that didn't wreck things Spencer's confidence issues, intelligence and habit of babbling about any subject would. So many women wanted a man that was intelligent but not a genius or anything or at least a man where it wasn't obvious he was one, one who was handy around the house and could fix a leak when necessary. Also one that would be home at a regular time every day, as very few women wanted to put up with a man's job that took them away for days or even weeks at a time.

Of course, since men were the same way, she, Emily and also Penny had had trouble finding understanding partners. Humans as a species were largely selfish, shallow creatures and often wanted more then someone could provide, whether that was time or something else like gifts. There were a lot of exceptions to the general rule, but finding those exceptions was not easy.

She had dated plenty, but had never been successful in finding a man that would put up with her job and in fact, a lot of them seemed to expect her to be a stay-at-home mom while they were the breadwinner. JJ had very firmly shown them the door when they had started to be too demanding. Did she want a family? Of course, she did, but she wasn't going to settle down with just anyone, just to have children. She had realized only a couple of years ago that she had fallen in love with Spencer without realizing it and that she had been in love with him for several years at least which was at least partially why none of her other relationships had worked out. Of course, Spencer wasn't the main reason, but still, he was one of the causes.

Spencer immediately started to feel guilty, just as JJ knew he would, as she waited quietly for his response. It wasn't obvious that he was feeling guilty, but JJ knew Spencer too well to not see the signs. Neither JJ or Spencer were aware that Dave was watching the pair of them quietly from his office doorway observing, but not interfering in anyway.

Dave had wondered when JJ was going to make a move and it looked like now was the time. He realized though, that they had been extremely busy with work over the last several months and had barely had a moment to breathe in all that time, so it was probably wise that JJ hadn't made a move before now, as things had finally calmed down again.

He hoped things went well and Spencer didn't let his fears stop him from opening up his heart to JJ, because if anybody deserved happiness it was his son. If Spencer and JJ actually got married he would be very happy indeed to welcome JJ and any children they had into his family.

Dave wasn't sure if using guilt was the right route to take, but also knew that his son could be stubborn and it was likely the only way to get him to agree to going out to dinner. He knew that JJ and his son had been friends for several years before he had rejoined the team and that Spencer had stopped hanging around with JJ so much, probably afraid of revealing how he felt, if he spent too much time with her outside of work. It was quite possible actually, considering that JJ was just as much a profiler as the rest of them, even if you weren't supposed to profile your teammates.

"Alright," Spencer finally conceded. "I suppose I have time for dinner."

"Good, because we haven't been out to dinner together in a long time," JJ said wanting to cheer aloud, but restrained herself. "We used to do it regularly, as I know you remember."

"I know," Spencer answered trying to remain calm hoping that JJ didn't clue into how he felt, as that would be disastrous and he knew it or at least he thought he knew it.

Spencer only hoped that this didn't become a regular occurrence because he knew he couldn't conceal his feelings from one of his best friends forever. He was usually pretty good at concealing his emotions, a skill he had developed in childhood, but when it came to the woman he was in love with it was very hard to keep up his façade.

"We need to get back to that no matter how busy we are," JJ said.

"We'll see," was all Spencer allowed himself to say, although he was frantically thinking that it was a very bad idea for their quiet dinners or doing other activities together when possible to continue. He wasn't sure how he could stop it though, without being rude or revealing how he felt, so he would just have to bear it silently. Well, he was used to being in emotional pain, as he had been in quite a bit during his childhood, though he has certainly been happier lately. Still, it wasn't like it was weird for him to have feelings that caused him pain, so he was well used to dealing with them.

JJ knew that was the best answer she was going to get so she dropped the subject for now.

"So what do you want to go for dinner?" Spencer asked. "Casual will be best as we're not going to get in anywhere really fancy at this late date."

"Casual is just fine," JJ said smiling. "I'm not really a fancy restaurant kind of girl, except on very special occasions perhaps."

Spencer had known this and nodded. "So want to meet at our favorite place then?"

"That sounds just fine," JJ agreed immediately before Spencer could change his mind.

What JJ really wanted was for them to travel together in the same vehicle, but that would mean leaving one of their cars at work, which would clue the rest of the team into the fact that they had gone somewhere together. Not a good idea, or at least it wasn't until JJ had actually gotten Spencer to go out on a date with her, preferably several dates until he was sure enough of their relationship that he felt comfortable revealing it to the rest of the team, including his father who would already know.

The two of them finally finished gathering their things and walked towards the elevator together not quite touching.

Dave watched this from his office and smiled a little truly hoping that the relationship between his son and JJ worked out. He would just have to wait and see.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~


	6. Chapter 6

Part 6

Six months later

"We've been dating and I didn't even realize it, haven't we?" Spencer asked JJ.

It had flabbergasted Spencer to realize that the casual meals that he'd had with JJ as often as they could manage had been dates in disguise

"What makes you ask that?" JJ asked casually.

"Come on JJ, I'm not stupid, even if I realize I've been fairly oblivious for the last six months," Spencer said.

"And what would you say if I told you they have been?" JJ asked.

"I'm not sure what I would've said if I had figured it out before now," Spencer admitted.

"I'll tell you what you would have done," JJ said seriously. "You would've stopped going out anywhere with me when we weren't working, because you were so afraid of revealing your feelings and all because your fear of rejection. If I hadn't finally gotten tired of you avoiding me and taken matters into my own hands you never would have told me of your feelings. Come on, Spence, I'm not stupid," JJ said quoting her date. "I've known for a long time that you've had feelings for me and I knew I had feelings for you to, but I knew you would never make a move. Hell! The whole team probably knows about our feelings for each other, since we practically live in each others pockets. I suspect that the only reason they haven't interfered is because you at least would have dug in your heels and refused to see that their interference was a good thing and we'd probably never would have gotten together as a result."

Spencer absorbed JJ's lecture knowing he had been a coward, but he also knew that a person's childhood wasn't an easy thing to overcome either.

"Are you just going to throw away the last six months or are you going to man up and admit that you do love me or at least have strong feelings for me," JJ asked.

"I'm not husband material for anyone, JJ," Spencer told the woman he loved softly thinking he was being perfectly reasonable and logical.

"What a load of shit!" JJ told him vehemently. "I can guess very easily who put that idea in your head, but he's in prison and probably someone's boy toy. I sincerely hope he's being tortured every single day and that it continues until he's finally dead. I can easily guess that William Reid put all kinds of ideas in your head about you not being desirable as a husband for whatever sick, twisted reasons he gave you. Everybody has faults Spence and hangups, as we wouldn't be human if we did not. You have such an exaggerated idea of yourself that you think that you're not suitable to marry.

"Believe me, I wish that I could torture William Reid and you know normally, I don't think like that, but what he did to a baby he kidnapped is more than deplorable, it's absolutely despicable. I'm aware that babies are kidnapped every day and a lot of them are killed for absolutely no reason other than that a lot of sick twisted people in the world, but Spencer you've got to get over what your William Reid put in your head as you deserve to marry and have a family if that's what you want. And don't you dare give me a list of reasons of why you're not suitable because none of it's true.

"Hell! You can't even use the excuse that your mother has schizophrenia, because she's not really your mother, though I know you still think of her like that. There's nothing wrong with thinking of the woman that raised you as your mother, but my point is, that you don't share her genes and as far as I know your real mother was not suspectable to schizophrenia. Even if she was that's no excuse so long, as the woman you were dating was willing to accept the possibility that you might develop it.

"Life is never a sure thing anyway as humans die from all kinds of things every single day, but a lot of them live to a ripe old age. Life is a crap shot, but you can't let that stop you from being truly happy," JJ continued her lecture.

Spencer listened to JJ rant and knew that she was very right and he had truly been a coward. Even though William Reid wasn't really his father he still had a lot of hangups, mostly because of his poor parenting skills.

"You need to make a decision," JJ continued. "Will you continue to let William Reid's nonexistent parenting skills affect you or will you allow yourself to be happy. You might tell yourself you're happy with your work and while that's true, there is a large difference in being happy with your job to being happy with a wife and a few children."

"Is that a proposal?" Spencer asked his lips twitching finally seeing the irony of the situation.

"No," JJ said realizing her blunder. "That's not to say that I wouldn't love to marry you someday, but no, that was not a proposal."

"You're right I've been a coward. I was still letting William Reid's non-parenting skills, as you put it, affect me. If you knew how many times he told me I was never going to marry because I was too intelligent, to plain, too many other nasty things to go into. I should've realized though, that intelligent people just like me with poor social skills get married every day. Of course, those marriages don't necessarily last, but a lot of times they do. Sometimes you just get lucky, even if I don't normally believe in luck."

"Good! I'm glad you can admit that," JJ said relieved. "The way you turned out is not your fault you know and really if anybody is to blame it's the man that will be spending the rest of his life in prison and in my opinion there's no better place for him. Your mother is excused because she had a genuine illness. You don't share their genes that's true, but that's not the whole equation of how somebody turns out and you know this. William Reid did everything he could to destroy a little boy's self-confidence in himself as desirable."

"Yes, I know my life would've been so much different if I had grown up with Dave, James and Caroline," Spencer admitted. "That's not the way things happened and yes, I know that the blame lies with William Reid, but that doesn't change the past."

"No, but you have to look forward to the future and try to get over childhood trauma," JJ urged him. "It will be a real poke in the eye to William Reid if you get married and have a family unlike his unrealistic predictions."

"You know that's a good point," Spencer said amused now. "I try to see both sides of an argument like perhaps William Reid had a psychic break when he realized his son was dying, which is why he did what he did. I'm not saying I believe that's the explanation, but you have to admit it is possible."

"I'm sure we could figure out a way for your father to find out about the fact that the boy he treated like shit was married and had a family," JJ said

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Spencer cautioned.

"I don't think we're getting ahead of ourselves at all," JJ argued. "We've been in love with each other for years and I always hoped you would ask me out on a date and not just as friends."

"I never thought you would return the love I felt for you, so I was determined to never let you know," Spencer said smiling a little nostalgically.

"You were an idiot," JJ told him vehemently.

"There's no need to rub it in," Spencer said lightheartedly. "I'm already admitted that I was a coward."

"That's a start," JJ said. "We could've been married for at least a year by now, maybe more, if only you had asked me out when you realized the feelings you had for me."

"Why do I have a feeling I'm in your dog house and I'm going to be paying for my cowardice for a long time?" Spencer asked rhetorically.

"Because you're incredibly perceptive," JJ told him firmly. "I don't know how I could've fallen in love with someone who either didn't see the signals I sent out or ignored them completely, because he was too afraid of being rejected. The man I know would never let fear stop him from doing what he should've done a long time ago."

"There's a difference in being brave on the job, then in your personal life," Spencer said.

"Alright, I admit you have a point," JJ conceded. "I know how crippling fears can be, but that doesn't mean you're off the hook."

"I guess that means we're dating now," Spencer said.

"We've been dating all along you just didn't know it," JJ said with a cute grin.

"I suppose we have," Spencer realized suddenly.

He and JJ had made a habit of getting together as often as they could in between cases and also sat side-by-side whenever they were working or in some restaurant eating. Spencer didn't believe he hadn't realized the significance of this arrangement before now, but he really hadn't thought anything of it. He was sure the rest of the team knew, because they weren't as dense as he was. He really had missed every single signal that JJ had been giving him and not on purpose, like she probably believed just that he had been so set in his mind to never get married, because he just wasn't suitable husband material, even if he hadn't realized he had, that he had blocked out the signals JJ was throwing his way.

"I can understand why you didn't believe you were suitable husband material, but Spence, you're certainly more suitable then at least a quarter of the would-be husbands out there that treat their wives like crap in one way or another, including William Reid. Just think of all the ones that are physically abusive or the ones that ignore their wives and cheat on them as if it's some kind of badge of honor to do so. Think of the ones that marry not for love but for some kind of political arrangement and how the husband and wife end up at least intensely disliking, if not outright hating each other."

"Or the ones that marry when they hardly know anything about each other, but think lust is love," Spencer offered.

"Exactly," JJ said triumphantly. "You are none of these things that we have mentioned. You are a kind, caring, empathic, intelligent and will be able to handle any child of ours that shows the type of intelligence that you have that your kidnapper handled in the wrong way."

"That's because he didn't kidnap me for the right reasons, if they are any right reasons, when it comes to kidnapping anybody," Spencer snorted sounding cynical, even for him. "He wanted a son to carry on the family name, not a son to love. He might've panicked, he might have not wanted to deal with his wife when she learned that her son had not survived. There could be any of a multitude of reasons why he did it and every last one of them is selfish in the extreme. But then that shouldn't surprise either one of us, because if there's one thing you should've learned by now William Reid was a very selfish man who cared only about one person—himself."

"Now that's something I definitely agree with," JJ said nodding.

"I've known what 'he' was like for a long time, though I never imagined he would commit any kind of major crime," Spencer said. "I knew he was selfish, uncaring bastard, but still, I never imagined that he would commit a federal offense. Something minor perhaps that would possibly get him a fine or community service, but nothing as major as kidnapping."

"But then you have to look at it from his point of view the odds of him being caught were slim to none, particularly since it happened back in the early 80s before neonatal units were watched very closely," JJ said. "It was nearly the perfect crime so long as he remembered to avoid the cameras just in case the security tape was reviewed or somebody in the security office was watching. What were the odds that you would actually run into your real father, after all? Or if you did that either of you would realize that you were father and son. I doubt very much that if it hadn't been for that birthmark that either of you would have ever realized that you were, because you don't look much like Dave at all, except superficially."

"Astronomical," Spencer answered. "Not impossible, but not very high odds either, if you consider how many people there are in the world. You're right, by the way, that I don't look much like Dave. I do look like Caroline, though it's not exact enough for Dave to have declared me as his son the second he set eyes on me."

"That was exactly my point," JJ said smiling.

The two of them sat and chatted for a long time before JJ headed home to her own apartment, so she could get some sleep.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~

Several weeks later

"Congratulations you two," Dave said grinning from ear to ear, as his son and JJ announced their engagement. "I'm very happy for you both. I've been expecting this for several months already."

"And why would you expect it?" Spencer questioned immediately.

"Because not all of us are as blind as you were," Dave told his son bluntly. "We all knew how you and JJ felt about each other and I at least often wondered if you would ever get together as anything more than friends. It doesn't matter who made the first move so long as the two of you got together like should have happened a long time ago."

"You're right, I was blind," Spencer admitted knowing he had indeed been blind where JJ was concerned. He had never had a relationship that lasted more than a few weeks at most and he hadn't wanted to risk his friendship with JJ, so he had said nothing.

"All of us understand very well why you didn't see that JJ was in love with you too," Dave told Spencer gently. "I'd like to believe that you would have noticed her feelings for you a long time ago if you had grown up with your real family, but you might have been just as oblivious for all we know."

"None of that matters now," JJ said, as she admired the engagement ring that Spencer had given her.

"No, not of it matters now," Dave agreed calmly. "Still, I think this calls for a celebratory drink. It's tradition after all, although I'm afraid I don't have any champagne in the house."

"Wine will do just fine," Spencer said smiling, as he gave JJ's hand a gentle squeeze. He had never been so happy in his life and he was glad that JJ had finally straightened him out. He still felt totally inadequate occasionally, but his love for JJ overwhelmed him sometimes that he knew now that he'd never had a chance of not revealing his feelings eventually. He strongly suspected that Dave had been involved in him and JJ getting together in some way, but if he had been he sure wasn't revealing how. Maybe he was just being overly suspicious, but he couldn't see his father not being involved in getting him together with the woman that he had known his son was in love with, especially not when he knew that same woman returned his son's feelings.

Spencer decided it didn't matter as there is no way he could be angry at Dave for interfering in his life considering he knew he had done it for the best of reasons. Of course, that's only if he was involved and he wasn't being overly suspicious.

"So when is the wedding?" Dave asked. "You're welcome to have it right here and if not then I'll pay whatever expenses you incur, even if I know it usually the bride's family that does so."

"You don't have to do that, Dave," JJ said immediately.

"Believe me, I don't mind it," Dave promised JJ. "You know I'm fairly wealthy due to my writing career, so I can afford this and it's something I can do for the son I have just recently rediscovered and his bride."

"There's no point of arguing with him, JJ," Spencer told the beautiful woman at his side. "I've only known him for four years and it's only been a year since I found out he was my father, but he's very stubborn and he's not going to change his mind."

"No, I'm not," Dave agreed calmly taking a sip of the wine he had just poured for him and his two guests. "This is my present to you. I'll pay for any cost the wedding incurs. I know very well that weddings can be expensive, even if they don't have many guests in attendance. This way you can do it the way you want without thinking about the cost of things."

"We did consider just eloping, but knew you'd probably kill us if we did so not to mention I know Penny would have and probably Emily," JJ sighed.

"I would've been mad and yes, kitten would have killed you. Probably Emily to," Dave smiled. "We all know that you don't want Penelope Garcia mad at you or Emily either for that matter, so it's just as well you decided not to elope."

"Still, we're not to let Garcia take control of the arrangements," Spencer said looking determined. "I think something relatively small will suit us both."

"I don't want anything too fancy," JJ agreed. "Spencer still needs to meet my mother, but since she lives in Pennsylvania we haven't yet had that opportunity."

"So you'll need to take a couple of days, go and see her," Dave said.

"Yes, we will, but with Matteo Cruz now in charge we'll not have any trouble getting leave time together," Spencer said. "If it had been Strauss now, I doubt very much that we would've been able to get a vacation at the same time, even if we had the time saved up and had more than earned it."

Erin Strauss had been killed just months previously in an explosion set by the replicator and she was hardly missed or mourned.

"Erin, changed so much over the years," Dave sighed, sipping his wine.

"I know you had a soft spot for her at one time," JJ said.

"She didn't used to be so…hard," Dave decided. "She was never soft or anything, but she did used to be more compassionate. Still, she's had a relatively hard life in recent years. Her marriage broke up, her kids didn't want anything to do with her and there was also her alcoholism to consider. I'm not saying that those things excuse her actions towards the team, but we all know that human beings are flawed. You know I heard rumors that if she hadn't been killed she wouldn't have been in charge much longer for her actions towards the bureau's best BAU team had been noticed by the higher-ups. If she hadn't corrected her behavior within a short amount of time she would've been out. She was her own worst enemy, even though I know that she didn't see it that way, but then, when you're in the wrong you often don't want to admit it and Erin had a lot of pride."

"Well, there's no point of discussing her anymore, even though I know you were fond of her, dad," Spencer said causing Dave to smile, because his son rarely called him dad. He couldn't blame Spencer really, because he had grown up calling one man father, only to be treated very badly by him. Spencer had a deep respect for him and also loved him, which Dave knew and it was more than enough. He had his son back and that was all that mattered. Still, while he would curse William Reid to his dying day, he would always be grateful that he had a relationship with the son he had believed was dead for a very long time. He was only sorry that his wife had never had a chance to find out that her younger son was alive and well.

"Yes, I was, but that was years ago, son. I really started to heartily dislike her at the very least as she wasn't the same Erin Strauss I remembered when I came back to the BAU. I realize very well that it was at least partly the alcoholism that caused it, but it's not the whole answer. So decide on what type of wedding you want as the sky's the limit," Dave added, as he put memories of Erin Strauss where they belonged.

"Well, we can discuss that later as right now all I want to do is go home and sleep," JJ said.

"Yeah I'm pretty tired too," Spencer agreed and Dave smirked at them knowing very well what they were going home to do. If they thought he believed that they were going to their two different apartments to sleep separately then they had another thing coming.

Spencer and JJ didn't comment at Dave's smirk knowing that he had already caught onto the fact that they weren't about to sleep without each other, but they decided saying nothing was definitely the better part of valor.

The three of them enjoyed their wine chatting softly before Spencer and JJ took they leave, knowing that they were going to be telling the rest of the team the news in the morning.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~


	7. Chapter 7

Part 7

"It's about the time the two of you realized that you love each other," Penelope squealed, as she hugged both Spencer and JJ happily.

"Yes, it was," JJ agreed. She glanced at her fiancé briefly, only to have Spencer flush in embarrassment, as he remembered how he had been determined to never tell JJ his feelings. He had been an idiot and he had already admitted as much, but he knew that JJ wasn't going to forgive him anytime soon for being one. Normally, he was very intelligent and observant, but when it came to figuring out and some woman liked him he was not very good at it, probably because it didn't happen very often. Most people didn't go for geeks like him or if they did, there was usually an ulterior motive like they were rich. Spencer knew that this wasn't always true, but it happened often enough that he supposed it had rather jaded him, well, that and William Reid's constant ridicule. No, he wasn't rich or at least not as rich as his father, but once word really got out that his father was a very rich author, even if he was also a member of the FBI he would likely have women trying their best to get his attention. And not because they actually liked him for himself, but because they wanted as much as they could get out of him, even if it was his father's money.

It was just as well that he was soon going to be off the market. That wouldn't stop some women who could be vultures and Spencer was well aware of it, but still, it would help.

"I have to agree," Hotch said coming out of his office. That he was actually smiling a little was a sure indication that he was very happy for his two teammates. "It was rather painful to watch you circle around each other, but I for one, wasn't about to stick my nose in."

"It's just as well that we didn't get together before now because you know that Strauss never would have allowed it," Spencer said. "She would've transferred one of us so fast our heads would have spun."

"While that's a somewhat valid point I never would have allowed that to happen and Erin and I would have been having words if she had tried it," Dave said. "While having two teammates involved with each other on the same team is rather unusual, it has been known to happen, but so long as it can be proven that they can still work together, do their jobs and not constantly worry about the other, especially since there is a lot of danger involved in being a member of the BAU then it would have been allowed. I have plenty of favors to call in and I would've done so if necessary to prevent you from being separated against your wills."

"We all know that Dave has a lot of influence due to being one of the founding members of the BAU," Emily put in

"And I would've been happy to use some of it on your behalf," Dave said.

"I never thought of that," Spencer admitted looking at JJ who subtly shook her head negatively.

"That's because you're used to making your own way and not using somebody else's influence with the people that matter, so that it never occurred to you to ask for favors," Hotch said. "While that sort of attitude is something I approve of as a general rule, in this case, I wouldn't have stopped Dave if he had to use his influence to keep both of you exactly where you are and would have added my own. I refuse to lose at least one of my best team members just because Strauss could be extremely petty. If either of you had actually wanted to leave it would have been different, but to try to force you is something that I'll never stand for if I can prevent it."

"If Strauss had had her way she would've destroyed the team for a long time," Emily said.

"Yes, she would have," Dave agreed. "This is the best team I've ever worked with and I would hate to see it broken apart due to the machinations of one person."

"You know how Morgan's going to react when you tell him," Penelope said finally.

"Yes, it's to bad he couldn't be here for the announcement," Spencer said.

"Let's not forget James," Dave added. "You know he'll be very happy at the news."

"I could never forget the brother that I never knew I had until about a year ago," Spencer said smiling, as he thought of James. "Technically, I'm unable to forget."

"You know I hope that William Reid learns of this and literally chokes," Penelope said looking just a little vindictive. "You know that normally, I'm not a vindictive person, but if anybody deserves to learn of your engagement it's your father and I hope it causes him great pain."

"That's very unlike you kitten," Dave said. "Still, I think we can all understand and appreciate your feelings."

"We definitely can," JJ said, as she went to hug her friend. "Believe me, that Spence and I feel the same way all of you do, even if Garcie expressed it best."

"This is supposed to be a happy occasion and while I wish Caroline could be here to see that not only is her son still alive, but he's about to get married, I know she's still with us in spirit," Dave said.

"Well said," Hotch told his old mentor.

"Thank you," Dave said.

"So do you need any help planning?" Penelope asked.

"Planning yes, but you will not take over," JJ told Penelope. "Spence and I agreed to have it in Dave's backyard, since he offered."

"I was going to ask Morgan to be my best man, but I think he'll understand when I tell him I decided on James instead," Spencer added. "My life has changed so much in the last year, that it only seems fair to offer my older brother a chance to be my best man, even if Morgan is my best friend and like a brother to me."

"I know my oldest son will be pleased to have such an honor," Dave said smiling.

"Morgan will understand," Penelope promised Spencer. "He might be a little disappointed, but still, you never had a brother before, not one related to you at any rate. You and James lost out on a lot of time to get to know each other, so this will tell him that he's important to you. Morgan will understand and if he doesn't I'll make sure I explain it to him."

"We wouldn't want that," Spencer chuckled. "We all know you have a rather unique way of explaining things to people."

"It's their problem if they don't listen the first time," Penelope shrugged. "If I have to knock him on the back of the head to get him to listen so be it."

"You'll all be invited to the wedding just as soon as we get the details worked out," JJ promised.

"Well, as pleasant as it is we need to get to work people," Hotch said his tone serious, though he was still smiling. "We can discuss this a little later."

Everybody had dispersed, except for Morgan who had called and said he was going to be late coming in as his car had broken down. He would be disappointed to learn the news last instead of first, but that's just the way it happened sometimes.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~

Rossi backyard

Saturday

"Dearly beloved we are gathered here today..." the priest began and Spencer and JJ paid close attention to the ceremony.

The wedding had been put together in a very short amount of time, especially considering how busy everyone was. Matteo Cruz had been a godsend and supported the two of them getting married. He had told him that he had known the two of them had been in love from practically the moment they had met, but it wasn't any of his business to interfere no matter how obvious it had been.

He had been very happy for them when JJ had finally got Spencer to admit his feelings for her and had only asked to be invited for the wedding. Once assured he would be just as soon as the planning was finished he had been happy to give them some time off if they needed to to take care of any of the details

Spencer remembered Cruz's exact words and they were. Both of you more than deserve to take time off as I know Strauss didn't like to grant leave time, unless it was a true emergency, as even she couldn't block that. In that, she was shortsighted, because with the jobs the team does, they do need leave time more often than people in other jobs, even if that's only a day or two. Any one of the team could have burned out or just simply quit because of her dictatorial attitude and we would have lost a fine profiler or even more than one. The team isn't going to be so effective if they don't have time to decompress. Our job isn't like being a clerk or a manager as the teams see some of the worst humanity has to offer. Strauss was very close to losing her position, because of her grudge against Aaron Hotchner in particular, but also the others on the team.

Cruz had made it clear that he would support the two of them just so long as they didn't let their relationship and eventual marriage get in the way of doing their jobs.

The wedding details had come together rather quickly with the help of Garcia and Emily it was due to take place on a weekend when they normally had off unless they got called in for some reason. Finally, that day had arrived, as JJ and Spencer stood before Father Jimmy who was an old friend of Dave's from Long Island.

"The rings please," Jimmy said and James who was standing proudly at his brother's side handed over the two rings that he had been holding.

"Let these rings be a symbol of your unity and never let the common ground between you disappear. Always discuss small problems before they become mountains and never go to bed angry. I wish you a long and happy life together in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."

Jimmy blessed the rings before handing one to Spencer and one JJ. Jimmy had both of them repeating their valves before he announced: "I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."

Spencer and JJ shared a kiss before breaking apart smiling.

Spencer and JJ turned to face the crowd, as Jimmy introduced them to their guests.

Everybody stood and cheered very happy for the couple, as the team had known for a long time that the two were meant to be together, but had feared Spencer at least, would never admit his feelings for the beautiful woman who was now his wife.

Of course, if Strauss had still been alive she would've done her best to break them up by threatening to fire at least one of them, and Dave knew he would've had to go to the director. He was certainly glad that Strauss was dead now so she couldn't interfere in his son's happiness with the woman he had loved for years. Dave looked at his son and saw how happy he was with JJ at his side and he couldn't be happier about that. If anybody deserved to be happy it was Spencer or Peter as he thought of him most of the time, even if he addressed him by the name that Diana Reid, whom Spencer considered his mother, had given him. Dave was so happy that Peter had not died like he had believed for so many years, but he would curse William Reid until the end of time. He was only sorry that Caroline hadn't lived to see that her son was not dead and was now married to the love of his life.

Dave was positive that JJ and Spencer's marriage would never break up, because they knew well the stresses of the job and would never allow it to come between them and for him that was more than enough.

Hopefully, in a year or two, they would be blessed with children and he would be the loving grandfather if that did occur. He just knew that Caroline was smiling down at them from heaven.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~

Five years later

Dave walked into the interview room at the prison that William Reid had been sent to.

"What do you want?" William asked, as soon as he saw Dave. His tone was rather bitter and rude, his complexion did not exactly say that he was healthy. "Come here to gloat?"

"You would think that, wouldn't you?" Dave immediately returned keeping his expression neutral. "You still don't think that you did anything wrong, but because of your actions I lost nearly 30 years with my son and James lost nearly 30 years with his brother. Spencer's mother Caroline will never know that her son Peter Daniel lived. You tore a family apart all because of your selfish actions."

William said nothing, but it was clear from his body language that he really didn't believe he had done anything wrong

"So what are you want?" William asked waspishly.

"I just want to show you what you lost by your actions," Dave said, "and no, Spencer doesn't know I'm here," Dave added as soon as William opened his mouth. "I will never tell him about this visit, because he's doing his best to forget you and the way you treated him worse then a pet completely and that's hard considering his eidetic memory. Still, he's strong enough, both mentally and emotionally to allow himself to be happy and forget about you as much as he can."

Dave sat in the chair opposite and pull several documents out of his briefcase. He shoved them in William's direction and the Senior Reid nearly automatically looked at the documents that had been presented to him.

"My son, that you did your best to ruin with your crappy parenting skills, whether that was deliberate or not, is now happily married and has two sons, both of whom are very healthy and active. The oldest son they named David Daniel Reid-Rossi and the youngest is Christopher Nicholas Reid-Rossi because he was born at Christmas. JJ or Jennifer Jareau Rossi is pregnant with their third, a girl they've already decided to name Caroline Diana."

"And your point is. You claimed you didn't come here to gloat, but from the way I see it that's what you're doing," William said.

"I'm trying to show you what you lost. As Spencer pointed out in court there was so many other ways you could've handled the situation. Any decent person might've thought about kidnapping a child out of desperation, because their own was dying, but never would've gone through with it. The team and I, including my son, that you claimed would never amount to anything, put this team behind bars not too long ago that made a habit of kidnapping babies out of hospitals to sell on the black market. Despite the nurses that work in the neonatal care unit vigilance kidnapping of an infant still happens."

"And why does that matter to me?" William asked.

"Because in a lot of ways this man and woman are a lot like you selfish, uncaring, arrogant and don't care who they hurt. You might only have committed major crime in your life, but it wasn't just a minor one like getting a speeding ticket or littering in the park, it was a major federal offense. I have to admit, it was a nearly perfect crime if only the father wasn't a member of the FBI, which is a federal law enforcement agency. Peter or Spencer to you would probably tell me that the odds of us encountering each other and me actually recognizing him as my son are at least 500,000 to 1."

"And yet it happened," William said his form finally slumping in the chair.

"You happened to choose a baby that had a rather unusual birthmark, one I recognized instantly. Perhaps, if you had not than you would've gotten away with it, although you would still have to pay for your crime when you passed away.

William looked at the pictures and articles that Rossi had placed before him, so he wouldn't have to answer. There was a wedding shot of the boy he had kidnapped standing tall and proud in a tuxedo that looked custom-tailored beside a beautiful blond lady with blue eyes in a short gown that couldn't be called a wedding dress, not that didn't mean that she didn't look spectacular with her hair all done up in some sort of fancy arrangement. Both of them were smiling happily looking into each others eyes William noticed and the boy he had called his son definitely didn't look like the same solemn, serious little boy that he had abandoned at 10, even after he had kidnapped him as a newborn infant. No, this man looked incredibly happy with the woman at his side and William wondered if the lady was pregnant as that was the only way he could see her agreeing to marry someone that was really no more then an emotionless robot. He couldn't see that marriage lasting much like his own hadn't.

However, since he didn't know anything at all about the couple on a personal level he didn't really have any right to make judgments, not that that occurred to William Reid.

It also never occurred to William Reid that the reason Spencer had seemed like such an emotionless child was that he had learned to hide the hurt that that the man he thought was his father caused him. Learned to hide it so well that the man that was supposed to love him never noticed how much he was hurting his son.

The next picture displayed them dancing together out in what looked like a backyard that had been turned into a reception area with a dance floor on one side. The two of them were swaying to the music their eyes locked on each other and looked beyond happy. The next photo was of Spencer and this JJ holding a baby looking at him adoringly and William assumed this was likely their oldest son who didn't look more than a few weeks old at most.

There were other numerous pictures, one of the man that was sitting across from him holding a baby looking proud and yet another of them surrounded by other people, though the only people that William recognized was David Rossi, Spencer, the baby he had kidnapped, his wife, that big black FBI agent, Morgan and the other guy with the dark hair and eyes Hotchner.

"That's the team that Spencer and I work with," Dave informed William his tone neutral. "You met Aaron Hotchner and Derek Morgan, but not the others. The dark haired lady on the right side of JJ is Emily Prentiss, the blonde lady with the glasses is Penelope Garcia, the big black man that is standing behind Emily is of course, Derek Morgan, on Morgan's right side is Aaron Hotchner who you also met. Oh and sitting on JJ's lap is Hotch's son Jack."

William looked at another picture just to avoid answering.

Both of Spencer and JJ sons were in this one as Spencer was holding one while David Rossi was holding the other, looking at his grandson with a sappy expression.

"You could have had something similar if only you hadn't kidnapped a baby from the hospital and while I could understand your need to divorce your wife, I still think it's wrong the way you went about it. You could easily have married again had a son and instead in a moment of what I am assuming is panic you kidnap a baby and to compound your error it happens to be the son of an FBI agent. Alright, I admit it was nearly the perfect crime if Spencer hadn't had the desire to follow in his real father's footsteps, even if neither one of us knew it until a few years ago," Dave said.

"Why should it matter to me?" William asked.

"Because you're in prison for the rest of your life with no chance of parole, so if you could only realize what you did was wrong and atone for your sins in some way your journey to the afterlife will be much more pleasant," Dave said. "It doesn't really matter to me either way, but an old friend of mine Father Jimmy asked me to do this as a favor. Jimmy likes to believe the best in people, although he's well aware that there is a lot of evil in the world. He wanted me to come and see if you had realized that what you had done was wrong. I can honestly tell him I tried, but I failed. Jimmy's always trying to save everybody's soul, but a lot of times people just don't want to be saved."

William wondered who this Father Jimmy was, but he figured it was somebody that David Rossi had known for a long time, perhaps even since childhood. That he was a priest was obvious.

"You can keep the pictures as I have copies," Dave said. "I'll make sure the guards let you. As Spencer has told me there are so many ways you could have done things differently. All you did was go out of your way to shatter a little boy's self-confidence, a boy that you kidnapped from his real family, just because he wasn't turning out like you wanted. What kind of father constantly insults his son just because he's not acting like a carbon copy of the man that kidnapped him? Alright, he wasn't really your son, but you certainly kidnapped him, so don't you think you should have treated him like he was? Insisting he go to public school for instance was not the right decision, but since you didn't care about him I can see how you would insist on that. I can see you figuring why waste the money. The least you could have done was hire tutors as it was evident by an early age that he was more than above average when it came to his intelligence. This is something that Caroline and I would have done if we couldn't find special programs that would nurture his intelligence. He never would've been allowed to go to college at just 12 either, because he might've been academically ready, but not emotionally. We would've found things that would have engaged his intellect until it was time for him to continue his education.

"It doesn't really matter anymore," Dave continued slowly shaking his head. "I've finally gotten to know the son, I believed was dead for nearly 30 years. That he's married to a lovely lady that I love like she was my own and that they've had a couple of children with another one on the way is a gift I never expected. James is also finally getting to know the younger brother who he never knew even existed until a few short years ago. You denied both James and Spencer a chance to grow up together and for that alone I never would have forgiven you. I would've understood a moment of desperation, and you might still have gotten a few years in prison if only you had returned my son and confessed, but at least you would have had a life on the outside. Your career would've been in the toilet, but at least you would've had your freedom. You lost it all because of your desperate stupidity.

"I've said all I came to say and it's clear you still don't believe you were wrong. Really, you remind me of some of the criminal the team catches, mostly serial killers who don't know right from wrong as they have no true emotion, though they're good at acting out those emotions, even if they don't truly feel them. You might have grandchildren of your own by now if only you had acted a little differently. It's clear to me though, that all you wanted was the semblance of a perfect family just like Spencer believed, that you never truly loved your wife and definitely not the boy you kidnapped.

"Enjoy the rest of your life, you deserve every bit of trouble that finds you and I truly hope you live another 30 years," Dave said before he rose and knocked on the door to be let out.

The door opened and Dave disappeared leaving William alone with his thoughts.

William Reid watched him go and wondered what his life would've been like if only he hadn't made such a stupid error in judgment.

He knew now that he would never know.


End file.
